Broken Glass Democrats Can their anger overcome Bush's normality?

The Wall Street Journal ^ | February 19, 2004 | PEGGY NOONAN

[neverdem]

A few quick thoughts about the president. I saw him this week at a White House event. I'd been looking forward to it. A lot had happened since I'd last spent time with him, in July, for an interview for Ladies Home Journal, and I was eager to get a sense of how he's feeling, thinking and looking as the election gears up. Also I've been tough on him lately and wondered how he treats people under such circumstances.

[Keith in Iowa]

How did he treat me? I'd like to say he was cool because that would suggest he's been reading my columns and they've had a huge impact. In fact he was friendly as ever. There are several ways to interpret this. I choose to believe he is hiding his pain.

A little full of yourself Ms. Noonan? Sheesh, woman...maybe he doesn't give two hoots and a tinker's damn what you've had to say about him...that's what I believe.

[tbpiper]

A little full of yourself Ms. Noonan?

I took it as dry humor.

[MEG33]

I think she had finally laughed at herself ,tongue in cheek,when she wrote that.We would love to think our words have great impact if they are passionate,critical,concerned or complimentary!She was just hoping to be read.

[okie01]

Read that paragraph again and imagine the sarcasm tag Peggy forgot to put there for you.

[Stallone]

Broken Glass Democrats?

Looters who throw rocks.

Destroy the bastards, and don't look back.

[Clock King]

George W. Bush didn't grow up at Greenwich Country Day with a car and a driver dropping him off, as his father had. Until he went off to boarding school, he thought he was like everyone else. That's a gift, to think you're just like everyone else in America. It can be the making of you.

Obviously, she knows little about children. ALL children think the rest of the world live like they do: whether rich, middle-class, or poor. They learn otherwise as they get older. Character is what is important, and being taught to be a full and caring human being crosses all economic lines. There are any number of people who grew up wealthy who were taught to be full human beings by their parents (you just don't hear about them very often), and any number of people who grew up poor who have NO character (any gang members and drug dealers).

[CyberAnt]

"They've had a lot of time to refine those arguments while they've been out in the cold. But this year the Democrats do seem hungrier than usual ... they feel a heightened passion"

Is this woman living in never never land ..??

The dems are not refining their arguments .. they are still using the same old playbook they have used for years. It's called "the politics of personal destruction". The dems are not "hungrier than usual" .. they are acting like rabid dogs, salivating, waiting for the kill. As for "heightened passion" .. it's actually a seething rage at anything descent.

[CyberAnt]

One of the life's incidents which I believed changed GW forever was the loss of his little sister. He believed it was his job to make his mother laugh again. I believe this helped him to polish his comedian skills. Also .. at such a young age, he learned to think of someone else besides himself. It's one of the keys to character.

[js1138]

Noonan is the best speech writer the Republicans have ever had.

[neverdem]

The dems are not "hungrier than usual" .. they are acting like rabid dogs, salivating, waiting for the kill. As for "heightened passion" .. it's actually a seething rage at anything descent.

LOL, I like Noonan's prose. IIRC, she wrote Reagan's "City on a Hill" speech.

[CyberAnt]

I like her prose too .. for speeches .. but her commentary about the dems is just way too mild.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

I still say we can't blame them for being "angry Democrats". If your party only offered this current group of losers to choose from, wouldn't you too be angry?

[Stallone]

I would become a suicide bomber for sure.

[longtermmemmory]

Noonan misses an important point. The Democrat are not just consumed by hatred alone. They are motivated by abject fear of extinction. Their party has consistenly gone down since 1992. Since 2002 they are locked into the minority. Eventually these old-used-to-be-miniority republicans will die and leave only republicans used to being the majority. Those young republicans will act like a majority. They will not hesitate or fear like trent lott or frist.

The democrats know this at least instictivly. If they are trounced in 2004, they are facing certain extinction.

Rove better get on the ball or he is going to miss an opportunity to not just win an election, but shape our nations future by finishing off the democrat party.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Peggy may be on to something with the 'Bush, the suburban President' description.

[neverdem]

Rove better get on the ball or he is going to miss an opportunity to not just win an election, but shape our nations future by finishing off the democrat party.

I want a two party system too, i.e. one that can recogonize our enemies, to survive, e.g. conservative and libertarian.

[tioga]

-the dems are running on fear of loss of power, look to the way they voted and were all over the map on the war on terror, they have NO plan, none are running on anything but I hate everything Bush and I WILL raise your taxes -- only koolaid drinkers are listening to that!

[randita]

Elections aren't won on anger. Sheeple don't like anger. Republicans learned that in 1996 and 1998. Had Bush tapped GOP anger at Clinton in 2000, Gore would probably have won. But Bush went "new tone" and despite those who snickered at this strategy, it has worked.

Democrats have not learned that lesson yet and probably won't for a couple more election cycles. In the meantime, they will keep losing.

[prairiebreeze]

Flat and disappointing from Noonan. Again. Perhaps she has some real reasons to hope that people are reading her.

Prairie