She's right about one thing, at least. The people (Maureen Dowd, I mean you) who think that Hillary and Bill Clinton are unique lightening rods for Republican attacks haven't been paying attention. This is politics now. Both Clintons are centrists. Neither did anything radical to draw the enmity of the opposition. Whoever the Democrats nominate will face the same relentless attacks they have.

There's just one way out of the bind for Democrats. Find an Eisenhower to run. (No, I don't mean John Kerry.) I mean a real honest to goodness super military hero like Ike, who is so popular with the American people that the opposition wouldn't dare try to defile him.

Unfortunately, there aren't any Eisenhowers around. Which is too bad. We desperately need an Eisenhower.

Watching Ken Burns's series this week reinforced my belief that Ike was a spectacularly well-equipped leader to run for president. As is shown in the moving section on D-Day -- the best part of the series thus far, in my opinion--organizing the invasion of France was a terribly complicated and burdensome job.

We don't have anyone around today who's faced a similar challenge (thank god!).

But is it too much to ask that the voters be given the choice to select someone who has borne great responsibilities and carried them out with good judgment?

That's what I want in a president.*

*It's not all I want. I also want a president who shares my political agenda.