Maureen Dowd pushing Obama for prez in '08

Her logic is strong:

"The weak and pathetic Democrats seem to move inexorably toward candidates who turn a lot of people off," she advises. "They should find someone captivating with an intensely American success story... and shape the campaign around that leader....

"The Democrats should not dismiss a politically less experienced but personally more charismatic prospect as 'an empty vessel.' Maybe an empty vessel can fill the room."

She adds that it may be true "that Americans, as one Democrat told me, 'will never elect a guy as president who has a name like a Middle East terrorist.'" But the Democrats, she says, do not "stand for anything" and they have "no champion at a time when people are hungry for an exciting leader, when the party should be roaring and soaring against the Bushies' power-mad stumbles.

"They should groom an '08 star who can run on the pledge of doing what's right instead of only what's far right."

Wouldn't it be amazing to have somebody run who nobody already hates and who we all actually kind of like? Crazy ideas.