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Peggy Noonan: Obama Rises to the Challenge - He sounded like the president (Slobber warning)
The Wall Street Journal ^ | January 15, 2011 | Peggy Noonan

Posted on 01/15/2011 11:26:00 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

The beginning of the president's speech wasn't good, and was marked by the sonorous banalities on which White House staffs in times of crisis always insist. "We join you in your grief," "We mourn with you for the fallen," "a quintessentially American scene . . . shattered by a gunman's bullets." Modern presidents sometimes speak as if their words were crafted by producers for a TV newsmagazine like "Dateline." This is bad because television producers tend to think their audience is composed of people who require the plonkingly obvious to be repeatedly stated in the purplest prose. The trend should be stopped. Presidents are not anchormen of true-crime shows, or were not meant to be.

I begin grouchily to underscore the sincerity of the praise that follows. About a third of the way through, the speech took on real meaning and momentum, and by the end it was very good, maybe great. The speech had a proper height. It was large-spirited and dealt with big things. It was adroit and without rancor. The president didn't mourn, he inspirited.

It began to turn when Mr. Obama started to make things concrete. Vaporous talk of victims turned into specific facts about real human beings: Phyllis Schneck was a gifted quilter, Dorwan Stoddard spent his spare time fixing up the Mountain Avenue Church of Christ. But the speech came into its own when the president spoke, again in concrete terms, of the condition of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords: "I have just come from the University Medical Center, just a mile from here." He had learned that "right after we went to visit, a few minutes after we left her room and some of her colleagues in Congress were in the room, Gabby opened her eyes for the first time."(continued@link)

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Politics; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: arizona; cinos; feeltheheat; feelthelove; giffords; msm; noonaninlove; obama; peggynoonan; rinoinheat; rinos; tucson
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Peggy is auditioning to be the new Parker in Parker/Wine Spritzer. Peggy, some things you need to do. 1. Ditch the subtle head twitch, the nonexistent hair out of the eyes ingenue demeanor. 2. Pick up the pace...I've fallen asleep between your words. 3. Get off your high royal horse. 4. Get some common sense.
21 posted on 01/15/2011 11:43:54 AM PST by JPG (YES SHE CAN!)
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To: FrankR
They remind me of that movie with John Candy where he woke up everyday to the same scenario, never ending.

"Groundhog's Day," except that it was Bill Murray. And you're right, of course.

22 posted on 01/15/2011 11:44:19 AM PST by truthkeeper ( God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy.)
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To: Tupelo
A product of the best liberal arts education the northeast has to offer.

Nah. She went to Fairleigh Dickinson, same place as Christine O'Donnell. She gets to be a mascot for Marlo Thomas and her ilk. If she hung around with hipsters, she'd be the one Republican friend.

I used to like her writing. BUt severe NYC-itis has taken over like leprosy on Molokai.
23 posted on 01/15/2011 11:44:38 AM PST by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
appointment of a more moderate and business-friendly chief of staff
24 posted on 01/15/2011 11:44:53 AM PST by gusopol3
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Yeah Peggy. The Obama approved campaign tee shirts and pamphlets really raised the bar for Presidential decorum.


25 posted on 01/15/2011 11:45:00 AM PST by Lazlo in PA (Now living in a newly minted Red State.)
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To: Eccl 10:2

She is a damned dim... she does not even rise to the low level of rino... she voted for obama... she is a leftist whore for obama.

LLS


26 posted on 01/15/2011 11:45:28 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (WOLVERINES!!!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Obama is one of the worst offenders and only finds fault in others. That isn’t presidential, it’s pathological.


27 posted on 01/15/2011 11:45:29 AM PST by DManA
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
appointment of a more moderate and business-friendly chief of staff

If possible, an even more corrupt eel of Chicago cesspool, and she applauds!

28 posted on 01/15/2011 11:45:35 AM PST by gusopol3
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To: truthkeeper
And Krauthammer said on Brett Baier's show that the fight over responsibility for the Tucson shooting was over and that Palin's video was unneccessary.

These Beltway folks never get it - the left will be repeating this lie for years - they are still repeating the lie from last year that racist slurs were hurdled at those Congresscritters walking through a Tea Party rally. And the Tucson lie will have to be beaten down for years. This fight will never be over, as liberalism shows no sign of collapsing from the weight of its own failures.

29 posted on 01/15/2011 11:46:07 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: JPG

She should ditch the chin-in-the-air thing too, and so should Bammy.


30 posted on 01/15/2011 11:46:13 AM PST by truthkeeper ( God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy.)
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To: truthkeeper
And Krauthammer said on Brett Baier's show that the fight over responsibility for the Tucson shooting was over and that Palin's video was unneccessary.

These Beltway folks never get it - the left will be repeating this lie for years - they are still repeating the lie from last year that racist slurs were hurdled at those Congresscritters walking through a Tea Party rally. And the Tucson lie will have to be beaten down for years. This fight will never be over, as liberalism shows no sign of collapsing from the weight of its own failures.

31 posted on 01/15/2011 11:46:14 AM PST by dirtboy
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To: rahbert

“”He should have reminded his cheering supporters that it was a memorial service and not a campaign rally.””

AMEN! I’ve been screaming about that all week and I’m still not back to my normal self.

As for Peggy - her speech writing days were over many years ago and she can’t accept that. She thought she’d remind everyone in this piece that she knows a good speech when she hears one. SORRY Peggy - none of us fall for your garbage anymore. There was a time when you made sense - not for many a year now.


32 posted on 01/15/2011 11:47:00 AM PST by Thank You Rush
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
He sounded like the president

I vehemently disagree. The text of the speech read like something a President would say. But when Obama read them, he did not sound like the President. He sounded like someone trained to read off of a teleprompter with zero emotional connection to the words being read. Compare Obama's reading with the real speech given by Daniel Hernandez (completely from memory - not even note cards). Hernandez spoke from the heart, connected directly with his audience, and came across as being believable and real. Obama was too pre-occupied with inserting pauses and inflection to even consider his audience.

33 posted on 01/15/2011 11:50:12 AM PST by Hoodat (Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. - (Rom 8:37))
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What Noonan is saying, in the end, is that Obama is stepping up his game. Republicans had better step up theirs. Who do we have? Palin?

I wish Noonan, who was Reagan’s speechwriter, would write Palin’s speeches. Better yet, I wish Michael Reagan would run for president in 2012.... but I digress!


34 posted on 01/15/2011 11:51:34 AM PST by California74
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

What Noonan is saying, in the end, is that Obama is stepping up his game. Republicans had better step up theirs. Who do we have? Palin?

I wish Noonan, who was Reagan’s speechwriter, would write Palin’s speeches. Better yet, I wish Michael Reagan would run for president in 2012.... but I digress!


35 posted on 01/15/2011 11:51:40 AM PST by California74
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To: truthkeeper

You have stumbled on the truth.
Obama and Noonan are elitist’s that think they have mastered the art of emotional manipulation.

What they don’t get is that we are on to them.
They dont hide their High minded ruling class mentality as well as they think.

These people are charlatans.


36 posted on 01/15/2011 11:51:56 AM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: Thank You Rush
“”He should have reminded his cheering supporters that it was a memorial service and not a campaign rally.””

If White House Was Surprised by Applause at Tucson Pep Rally ... Why Did They Ask For It On Jumbotron?

Unfortunately, applause is exactly what the narcissist-in-chief wanted.

37 posted on 01/15/2011 11:53:45 AM PST by Servant of the Cross (I'm with Jim DeMint ... on the fringe!)
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To: JPG
You will never see her compliment Conservative women because they are everything that she is not. She cannot work alongside men and be on the same level because she wants all the attention on her with her sickeningly subtle sexual flirtations. When you put the barf bag in front of you in order to watch her,it does not take long before her swooning and swaying with the voice overly whisper like makes you use it. she is getting more obvious all the time that she is very jealous of real women.
38 posted on 01/15/2011 11:57:52 AM PST by samantha
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
But the speech came into its own when the president spoke, again in concrete terms, of the condition of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords: "I have just come from the University Medical Center, just a mile from here." He had learned that "right after we went to visit, a few minutes after we left her room and some of her colleagues in Congress were in the room, Gabby opened her eyes for the first time."

This was met with thunderous applause. He repeated the sentence: "Gabby opened her eyes for the first time." More and deeper applause. Something seemed to shift at this point. Suddenly the president was fully integrated into the text, he was it and it was him.

Stop right there Peggy

39 posted on 01/15/2011 11:58:28 AM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: Servant of the Cross

Did they actually have a jumbotron?

I was wondering about that as I watched it on TV.

That would be classic Obama.


40 posted on 01/15/2011 12:00:31 PM PST by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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