Maureen Dowd: Where's Laura??

One of the major liabilities of the Bush administration is what kind of hollow and empty vessels both George and Laura seem like. On ths surface, W. seemed like the perfect antidote to partisan politics and the guy we all wanted to have a beer with. Laura seemed warm and friendly. But the problem is that like whitened sepulchures, once you get beyond the surfaces, you see nothing. George Bush has an inner circle that he will let few people in. As Dowd points out, Laura is the same way -- charming on the outside, yet she never reveals her true self. We always wonder what kind of struggles she goes through, whether she feels any qualms over the occupation of Iraq, or any of the other crimes of the Bush administration. In fact, Curtis Settenfeld goes so far as to write a whole novel of what her life must be like.

And John and Cindy McCain are the same way. On the surface, John seems like a war hero, yet we never really know what makes him click. His one-time image as a maverick has been replaced by a whipped puppy willing to do the bidding of his right-wing masters. We never know anything about Cindy. We never know whether John McCain is healthy enough to discharge the duties of office. We never know whether his conscience lets him rest easy at night.

And that is part of the allure of both Barack and Michelle Obama -- here is a couple who are totally transparent and who have both totally opened their lives up and shared them with us. We know about the personal struggles of Barack from his childhood to his adolescence to today. And this translates into public policy as well -- Barack Obama has become one of the leaders in the Senate in calling for more transparency in government. Tomorrow will be the vote on the FISA compromise, which some say is a complete capitulation. One person goes so far as to say that the die is cast and that we can never go back.

Yet is that true? Knowing what we know of Obama, he says that he will order a comprehensive review of our electronic surveillance programs when he is President. And knowing what we know of him, we know that this process will be totally transparent. And based on the harrowing movement to petition Obama to oppose the FISA compromise, we know that we might not agree with what he does. Yet we will always understand why he does things even if we don't always agree. This will be a refreshing change from the culture of secrecy of the Bush administration that John McCain would continue.

tags: barack obama  maureen dowd  john mccain  cindy mccain  george w bush  laura bush  curtis settenfeld  fisa  

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