美國是超級強國。美國的總統，是當今世界上權力最大的人。
可這世界上就是有些人，不知道天高地厚，專門和美國總統過不去，或者說，靠總統吃飯。
紐約時報的專欄作家，１９９９年普利策新聞獎獲得者，Ｍaureen Dowd，就是其中的一個。
她文筆辛辣，風格活潑，吹毛求疵，不留情麵。使小布什總統頭痛，專挑小布什總統的錯別字，寫了本《布什世家：自討苦吃》（Bushworld: Enter at Your Own Risk），並隻呼小布什為Ｗ總統。
對於布什政府在卡淳娜颶風方麵的束手無策，她隻呼美利堅合眾國為“美利堅丟眾國”（Ｕnited States of Shame）。
對於民主黨出身的美國總統，她也毫不手軟。曾使克林頓總統，在魯溫斯基的事情上，栽了個大跟頭。
美國的總統栽了個跟頭，從事報道的記者就得了大獎。
尼克鬆總統的水門事件，也有類似的情況。
這就是民主社會。
Maureen Dowd (born January 14, 1952) is a columnist for The New York Times who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 for her series of columns on the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
She was born in Washington D.C. the youngest of five children in a Catholic family where her father worked as a police officer.
After graduating in 1973 with a B.A. in English Literature from Catholic University in Washington, DC she began working as a secretary at the Washington Star, and was later promoted to reporter. In 1981 when the newspaper went out of business she took a job at Time magazine. After two years there she left and began working at The New York Times initially as a metropolitan reporter.
In 1995 she took the place of Anna Quindlen who went to work at Newsweek, and both sometimes write on feminist issues. She is generally considered a liberal and an opponent of President George W. Bush, although she has also been critical of Bill Clinton. Her columns often display a marked irreverence (criticized as a lack of seriousness), for example referring to Donald Rumsfeld as "Rummy". An arch-nemesis to conservatives, her work has been described (http://www.nationalreview.com/goldberg/goldberg200411081212.asp) as "hit(ting) your desk like a bucket of vomit with some Body Shop potpourri sprinkled across the surface". Nonetheless, she seems quite close to former NY Times opinion writer, and conservative icon, William Safire.
Dowd's critics, especially James Taranto, have often accused her of editing quotes and adding ellipses so as to change the quotes' intended meanings; the word dowdify has been coined to describe this habit. The word has become common parlance among journalists and bloggers, regardless of political persuasion, to describe any wilful misinterpretation of a quote. Conservative pundit Isaiah Z. Sterrett has compared her to Norma Desmond.
Dowd is the author of the 2004 book Bushworld: Enter at Your Own Risk.
Dowd has recently criticized the ascension of Benedict XVI to the papacy, citing his opposition to legalized abortion and his other conservative policies.
