Maureen Dowd's Latest Ugly Attack: Hillary Clinton “Should Have Run As A Man This Time”

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd suggested that Hillary Clinton “should have run as a man this time” and likened Clinton to a dog in in her latest negative assessment of the Democratic presidential candidate.

Dowd has a decades-long history of attacking Clinton, often invoking bizarre comparisons in her criticism. According to a recent Media Matters analysis of Dowd's columns on Clinton dating back to 1993, 75 percent of 212 columns that made significant mention of Clinton were negative. Since June 2014, all 17 of Dowd's columns that mention Clinton significantly were negative. Dowd's first 2016 column on Clinton compared her to Leonardo DiCaprio's character from the movie The Revenant, which is about a revenge-minded trapper making his way through the wilderness.

In a January 16 column for The New York Times, Dowd claimed that Clinton ran “as a man” in 2008 but “is now running as a woman.”

Based on her apparent belief that Clinton's 2016 campaign is overly feminized, Dowd wrote, “she should have run as a man this time, when Americans feel beleaguered and scared and yearn for something 'big and masculine and strong.'”

Instead Dowd claimed that Clinton “has cast herself as Groundbreaking Granny.”

In a later section in her column, Dowd wrote, “It may be more relevant to ask if someone is a cat or a dog,” as opposed to a man or a woman.

While comparing President Obama to a cat, Dowd likened Clinton, along with GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, to a dog:

Both Hillary and Trump have been emphasizing that they will do a lot more schmoozing with lawmakers and others who disagree with them, vowing to be dogs with a bone, eager canines offering paws, and not a cool cat stalking away at the first sign of difficulty or when affection is most desired.

Dowd previously accused Clinton of “acting like a masculine woman” during the 2008 campaign and her call for Clinton to now “run as a man this time” comes after Dowd has accused Clinton of betraying feminism more than three dozen times.

According to Media Matters' January 13 study, dating back to November 1993, Dowd has made significant mention of Hillary Clinton in 212 columns:

  • 159 columns (75%) were negative
  • 53 columns (25%) were neutral or positive
  • 61 columns (29%) have accused Clinton of being power hungry
  • 37 columns (17%) accused Clinton of betraying feminism
  • 15 columns (7%) said Clinton was not likeable
  • 47 columns (22%) characterized Clinton as a phony
  • 44 columns (21%) performed psychoanalysis of the Clinton marriage