Thursday, October 15, 2009
From Ace: WH Fox-Hating Flack Anita Dunn Discovered Telling HS Audience Her Favorite Philosophers are Mother Theresa... and Chairman Mao. Ace gives this one a flaming skull...yeah, I'd say that's about right:
A little background: Why the White House Picked Anita Dunn to Wage War With Fox
This weekend, after White House communications director Anita Dunn forthrightly declared war on Fox News, some people thought she might have gone a little too far in explaining a tacit understanding in the Obama administration that they didn't deal directly with the right-leaning network. One almost expected to see a clarification of the remarks afterward, as Fox anchors like Bill O'Reilly and Glenn Beck gleefully ran with the story. But of course, Dunn's statements had been carefully scripted by the Obama team -- as is pretty much everything you hear from them, except things that are supposed to be off the record. And what's more, Dunn herself was selected to fire off the opening salvo for a specific reason: On a strategy team largely dominated by men, she's acknowledged to be the toughest member...
Well I guess now we know why.
Update 10-16-09: Hans von Spakovsky: Anita Dunn and Mao Zedong and Andy McCarthy: Re: Anita Dunn and Mao Zedong
Linking Mother Theresa and Mao was clearly intended as sarcasm. This doesn't make her a Maoist.
Whether she's technically a Maoist is open to question but a bit beside the point. She sets up an ironic juxtaposition, but there's nothing disapproving about either end of it.
I find quoting a mass murderer to a bunch of high school kids and, if you listen to what she says, advises the kids to adhere to what she got out of Mao a little disturbing. If you juxtapose Hitler (or pick your favorite mass murderer) as her quotation instead of Mao, sarcasm or irony, it is still disturbing to be spouting a murderer's philosophy.
I watched the clip. She mentioned Mao and Mother T--that juxtaposition might have been intended to be humorous. Then she went on hold up an anectote about Mao as an example for attitude and behavior. This was completely serious and not a joke. For her to say she was joking is completely disengenuous. The joke is on US for electing a president who would give this kind of person an influential position.