It’s only been four years since Hillary Clinton ran for president, but New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd apparently forgot, declaring in a Saturday column that it had been 36 years since “a man and a woman ran together on a Democratic Party ticket.”
“It’s hard to fathom, but it has been 36 years since a man and a woman ran together on a Democratic Party ticket,” said Ms. Dowd in her column, “No Wrist Corsages, Please.” “To use Geraldine Ferraro’s favorite expression, ’Gimme a break!’”
She was referring to the 1984 tandem of Walter Mondale and Ms. Ferraro, who lost to Republican incumbents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, but sharp-eyed fact-checkers quickly pointed out that the Democrat Clinton selected Tim Kaine as her running mate in 2016.
Among the volunteer copy editors was Mrs. Clinton herself, who tweeted: “Either @TimKaine and I had a very vivid shared hallucination four years ago or Maureen had too much pot brownie before writing her column again.”
Either @TimKaine and I had a very vivid shared hallucination four years ago or Maureen had too much pot brownie before writing her column again. https://t.co/J3SSwtkg7x
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) August 8, 2020
The New York Times quickly changed the sentence to: “It’s hard to fathom, but it took another 36 for a man to choose to put a woman on the Democratic ticket with him.”
While accurate, the corrected statement ignored the 2008 Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin.
Sarah Palin should ask Maureen Dowd, “What newspapers do you read?”
— Jean Mobilia (@jeanmobilia) August 8, 2020
Correction: An earlier version of this column incorrectly said it had been 36 years since a man and a woman ran on a Democratic Party ticket. It has been that long since a man chose a woman to run as V.P. on the Democratic ticket. We’ve deleted a tweet that repeated the error.
— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) August 8, 2020
Social-media wags were quick to chide Ms. Dowd, whose column centered on whether former Vice President Joseph R. Biden’s running mate would be treated with respect. Mr. Biden has vowed to select a female veep candidate.
The New York Times said in its correction: “An earlier version of this column incorrectly stated the history of the Democratic ticket. It has been 36 years since a man chose a woman to run as his vice-president on the Democratic ticket, not 36 years since a man and a woman ran together on a Democratic Party ticket.”
Ms. Dowd, who won a Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1999, famously wrote a 2014 column about getting high on marijuana edibles after Colorado legalized pot for recreational use.
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