Anita Dunn Steps Down

White House Communications director Anita Dunn, best known, perhaps, for her joke about admiring Mao Tse Tung, is stepping down. After Glenn Beck aired a video clip of Dunn's joke (perhaps she could have varied her tone a little to tip the audience off that she meant it as a joke), Dunn waged a war against Fox News, famously calling it a "wing of the Republican Party."

Dunn's comments may have resonated with some on the left, but I do not think they did much to help Obama appeal to those who did not already like him. Unless her replacement Dan Pfeiffer is as radical and careless as Dunn, this change may help the administration.

Comments

[William]

KB,
I'm not sure he'll be much better, although perhaps more cautious in his public statements.

Interesting description in the Washington post about Dunn & Pfeiffer's relationship about and their South Dakota connection.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/white-house/dunn-leaving-white-house-pfeif.html

"Prior to Obama, Pfeiffer worked for Sen. Tim Johnson's (S.D.) re-election race in 2002 and on then Sen. Tom Daschle's (S.D.) unsuccessful bid in 2004."

"Dunn and Pfeiffer are longtime confidantes -- having worked closely in Daschle's political orbit for years."

[Lynn]

If that was a joke, I'm Jay Leno! And anyone who knows me, knows I'm not!

[Miranda Flint]

William: It's actually me writing this post, but thank you for the article. It's interesting to see the South Dakota connection.

[William]

Whoops, sorry Miranda (not the first time I've typed without thinking - lol)

[RadioActive Chief]

If you really accept that the Mao reference was a joke please contact me about tropical beach property in NW Moody County. I have a deal you won't be able to refuse! (No need to come and see it - it's really real! Honest - just like Dunn's excuse!)

[Miranda]

William: Not a problem at all! I've done that plenty enough myself!

Lynn and RadioActive Chief: Thanks for your comments. I do think it a little odd that Dunn qualified her joke by explaining that Chairman Mao and Mother Theresa weren't often coupled together, but were the two people she looked to the most. If it was, indeed, a joke, she spoiled it with that. If her joke truly was a joke, her communications skills are lacking. One wonders, then, why Obama gave her a communications position. If it was not a joke, then the president made another embarrassing appointment. Either way, it's probably a good thing Dunn stepped down.

[KB]

I notice that Dunn recently said that MSNBC was not biased. Her Mao comment was stupid and objectionable, but not really all that serious. Calling MSNBC unbiased removes whatever credibility she may have had. She was no more than a simple apparatchik.