Matthew Dowd Puts Down His Kool-Aid

4:22 pm EST March 31st, 2007 | News | 9 Comments

Looks like someone‘s getting cut off of the Christmas card list.

A top strategist for the Texas Democrats who was disappointed by the Bill Clinton years, Mr. Dowd was impressed by the pledge of Mr. Bush, then governor of Texas, to bring a spirit of cooperation to Washington. He switched parties, joined Mr. Bush’s political brain trust and dedicated the next six years to getting him to the Oval Office and keeping him there. In 2004, he was appointed the president’s chief campaign strategist.

Looking back, Mr. Dowd now says his faith in Mr. Bush was misplaced.

In a wide-ranging interview here, Mr. Dowd called for a withdrawal from Iraq and expressed his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s leadership.

He criticized the president as failing to call the nation to a shared sense of sacrifice at a time of war, failing to reach across the political divide to build consensus and ignoring the will of the people on Iraq. He said he believed the president had not moved aggressively enough to hold anyone accountable for the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and that Mr. Bush still approached governing with a “my way or the highway” mentality reinforced by a shrinking circle of trusted aides.

“I really like him, which is probably why I’m so disappointed in things,” he said. He added, “I think he’s become more, in my view, secluded and bubbled in.”

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9 Responses to “Matthew Dowd Puts Down His Kool-Aid”

  1. midderpidge says:
    March 31, 2007 at 5:04 pm

    Mr. Dowd was impressed by the pledge of Mr. Bush, then governor of Texas, to bring a spirit of cooperation to Washington.

    It took him six years???

  2. dry_fish says:
    March 31, 2007 at 9:09 pm

    Maybe he can pitch ABC on a co-hosting gig with Stephanopoulos?

  3. fd10801 says:
    April 1, 2007 at 12:33 am

    You mean the Tom Dowd? Or some lesser known guy?

  4. D Corbin says:
    April 1, 2007 at 2:00 pm

    How easy to slam your county, friends, leaders and military in interviews instead of actually confronted the supposed people you know so very well.

    What happened to back bone?

  5. Wellstone says:
    April 1, 2007 at 3:46 pm

    Matthew Dowd, (not Tom, Matthew) was a BIG deal to GW.

    His skill and uncanny ability to create and interpret polls that nailed the feeling of the country on issues made him a legend around the Bush White House.

    I still laugh when wingnuts tell me how Bush is a “Man of Principle, never allowing himself to be influenced by polls” when he had Dowd, the best pollster of his time, sitting right next to him and Rove while the whole time they were making policy decisions.

    I was always puzzled as to why the Bushies let him go and work on Ahh-nult’s Gollyvornia campaign, when he was so desperately needed to connect the Bush team to what the country was thinking.

    Looks like it was Dowd’s decision to leave, not the Bush White House’s call.

  6. fd10801 says:
    April 1, 2007 at 7:26 pm

    Oh, I’m sorry, wellstone, you’re right.

    Tom Dowd is the famous one.

  7. John says:
    April 1, 2007 at 8:59 pm

    How are so many Democrats fooled into believing that there is a place for them among republicans? Democrats understand what it means to lift all boats and we also understand that neither government nor business alone can sove the problems of this world. Democrats have got to wake up and realize that republican thought is not really about ideology but is a mental illness that is taking this great country down the drain.

  8. fd10801 says:
    April 1, 2007 at 11:29 pm

    …republican thought is not really about ideology but is a mental illness that is taking this great country down the drain
    And that’s wahy you Dems better enjoy the next two years — because the White House will be ours once more. The Dems will never realize that (their) opinions are not (true) facts.

  9. klnok says:
    April 5, 2007 at 5:03 pm

    A life-long democrat that switched sides because you thought ol’ numbnuts “could reach across the aisle???” You’re pathetic. Stay a republican, please.

    “Now, near the end of his presidency, when many of us thought we would have helped solve the problem of polarization, we’re in an even more polarized place,” he wrote.

    And you’re just the DUMBASS who got us there. I hope you feel really good about yourself.