Columns helpful to Obama: 1
Columns helpful to McCain: 2
Columns helpful to no one: 1

If she keeps to form, she'll use her next column to make fun of Republicans. We'll see. Evidently, Dowd has found nothing inspiring in the first two nights of the Democratic convention. Her only comment on Michelle Obama's speech?

...with some Democrats nitpicking Obama’s appearance, after Michelle’s knock-out speech and the fabulously cute girls, with a reassuring white family in a town he couldn’t remember at one point. They wondered why he wasn’t wearing a tie, fearing he looked too young, and second-guessed Michelle’s green dress, wondering if it clashed with the blue stage, and fretted that there wasn’t a speaker Monday night attacking McCain and yelling about gas prices.

There are always some Democrats somewhere that are upset about something. If you look hard enough you may even find one that was concerned about Michelle Obama's choice of dress and Barack's lack of tie.

Dowd makes no mention of Teddy Kennedy's emotional appearance on Monday night. She has nothing to say about the significance of Obama's nomination. All she can see in Denver is 'submerged hate'.

...this Democratic convention has a vibe so weird and jittery, so at odds with the early thrilling, fairy dust feel of the Obama revolution, that I had to consult Mike Murphy, the peppery Republican strategist and former McCain guru.

“What is that feeling in the air?” I asked him.

“Submerged hate,” he promptly replied.

Yes, by all means ask a Republican strategist and close friend of John McCain to offer his assessment of the 'vibe'. Then publish it as the Holy Word of God. My friends, if you haven't figured it out yet, Maureen Dowd does not actually represent the left in this country. A columnist for the left would not use precious New York Times' Op-Ed space to highlight and exaggerate divisions within the party. She would not mock the would-be first lady's dress or suggest that the Democratic convention has a vibe of suppressed hate.

And, you know, it's fine for Dowd to be independent and to be irreverent towards politicians. But she should offer something insightful and true. She seldom does this. I did not watch Hillary Clinton's speech last night but I have read the reviews from Obama and Clinton supporters alike. And everyone seems to agree that she gave a spectacular speech that left nothing wanting from Obama's perspective. Is the truth of that fact expressed anywhere in the following?

She added insult to injury by coming out Tuesday night looking great in a blazing orange pantsuit and teaching the precocious pup Obama something about intensity and message. She thanked her “sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits,” and slyly noted that Obama would enact her health care plan rather than his.

She offered the electrifying fight that the limpid Obama has not — setting off paranoia among some Democrats that they had chosen the wrong nominee or that Obama had chosen the wrong running mate.

Obama is precocious and limpid? My friends, I am going to keep pointing out that Dowd is not only not our friend and ally, but that she is dishonest and a very bad writer. She deserves no less.