How Big Does Anything American Need to Be?

In the op-ed column for the NY Times, Maureen Dowd wonders how big anything from the cars that Americans drive to the nation debt can be.

How big do we need to be to still feel American? How big can our national debt grow? How big can our cars be? And how big is our clout abroad these days? Will Michelle’s style in Europe make as big a splash as Carla Bruni-Sarkozy’s?How do we come to terms with the gluttony that exploded our economy and still retain our reptilian American desire for living large? How do we make the pursuit of the American dream a satisfying quest rather than a selfish one?