Now we know why Wendy Davis has been shutting out Texas media
Remember how the Wendy Davis campaign tried to deal with the fallout of her exaggerated bio in late January by cancelling interviews with reporters and shutting off press access while stage-managing awkward photo ops and throwing up political Hail Mary desperation plays?
Now we know why! The Davis campaign was running to the New York Times to try to change the narrative:
One sunny Friday morning in late January, Wendy Davis took me on a two-hour tour of the life she led just a decade or so ago, back when she was a city councilwoman and the world knew nothing of her. . .
Robert Draper wrote a favorable article about Wendy (!) Davis a few months ago, laying out the most favorable case that Wendy Davis in fact had some semblance of a chance to win as a liberal in Texas.
Since Davis's campaign was so pleased with Draper's previous article, they went back to the well. And they'll like what they got: hagiography that repeats all of Matt Angle's talking points with barely a whisper of criticism.
Early on Draper suggests that Wendy Davis exaggerations and distortions of her biography are a story because...she's female.
But [the controversy over falsities in Davis's bio] was also very much the story of a female politician -- and was thus fraught with choices for which male candidates are seldom second-guessed by either voters or pundits.
And yet, despite getting former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm on the record to cry sexism...
As former Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan, a Democrat, told me: "Politics is so far behind the other sectors, I guess because in a democracy you have to appeal to the broadest spectrum in order to get elected. People still expect a more traditional thing from female politicians. Calling a man ambitious is seen as a positive thing. With a woman, it's a negative."...the best quote Draper can get from a Republican is from frequent GOP critic Christie Todd Whitman:
Former Gov. Christie Whitman of New Jersey, a Republican, put it this way: "It's not that the questions about the accuracy of her narrative are illegitimate. It's the intensity of the questioning that's so disheartening."Even Whitman acknowledges the legitimacy but questions the...intensity. I recall Whitman very intensely bashing Jim Florio's record back in the day, so this must be a newfound concern for her.
Later on, Draper tells us that:
To this end, Davis makes for an intriguing warrior. Even her political enemies concede her toughness.
The only support offered for that assertion comes from quotes by her fellow liberal Democrats in the Texas Senate, Kirk Watson and Rodney Ellis.
Posted by Evan @ 02/12/14 08:59 PM
Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry
Comments
Add Comments
No flames or impolite behavior. HTML will be stripped. URLs will be transformed into hyperlinks.