I haven’t blogged a Maureen Dowd editorial rant in years

It’s all about the magic, really.

And whether we can take a flier on this skinny guy with the strange name and braided ancestry to help us get it back.

Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister of France and a strong supporter of the United States, recently observed that President Bush has done such a number on our image in the world that no one will be able to restore the luster.

“I think the magic is over,” he said.

Wouldn’t be a Mo Dowd column without some Bush bashing, because, you know, the rest of the world only started hating us on Jan 20, 2001. Reality Based Nuance!

Pas si vite, mon vieux. In terms of style, the Obamas could give Carla Bruni-Sarkozy a run for her euros. And at least Obama is not in a fantasy world on Iraq, as W. and John McCain are, insisting it’s improving while we see it exploding.

Yes, because the Magic Man will simply run away from the fight like a typical liberal/progressive Democrat would do, the weak kneed, pusillanimous, son o………moving on. Interesting how some of the serious progressives in the past, FDR, JFK, Wilson, and others at least had the cajones to finish the job.

One Obama adviser moaned that the race was “beginning to feel like a hostage crisis” and would probably go on for another month to six weeks. And Obama said that the “God, when will this be over?” primary season was like “a good movie that lasted about a half an hour too long.”

Hillary sunnily riposted that she likes long movies. Her favorite as a girl was “The Wizard of Oz,” so surely she spots the “Surrender Dorothy” sign in the sky and the bad portent of the ladies of “The View” burbling to Obama about how sexy he is.

Any feel that Mo will soon be sending flying monkeys after Hillary?

[Obama] wants to make government “cool” again. He wants to banish the red-blue culture of conflict on TV and in Washington. And he wants to make the country healthier, thinner and smarter. “I want our students learning art and music and science and poetry,” he says, in a crowd-pleasing line.

Meanwhile, John McCain wants to empower Americans to be responsible for their own lives, and government to be responsive to the People, rather then government taking care of people live Mommy and Daddy took care of us when we were 5 years old.

It is the vast difference in your choice for President. Do you want to be an adult? Vote McCain. If you want to be a perpetual child in the care of government, vote Democrat.