[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.

[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.

[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.

[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

[q_an_a]

"There are several ways to interpret this. I choose to believe he is hiding his pain." CS Lewis commented in 1945 that too many people of the middle class spend too much time associating actions with motives. Maybe what President Bush did with Ms. Noonans articles is use them as a tool to improve his presentation. He has made too many hard decisions to be upset about comments on his performance.

[small voice in the wilderness]

Broken glass democrats? It's more like Broken Mirror Democrats. clinton shattered the image of dems. and they're too willfully deceived to understand, pick up the pieces, and clean up the mess. The shards of his image will continue to mesmerize them, even as they lose their life blood.

[John O]

But this year the Democrats do seem hungrier than usual, in part because of the continuing wound of the 2000 election, in which their candidate had a plurality of the popular vote

Excellent article but this is a lie. President Bush won the popular vote so big that the dems couldn't manufacture enough fraudulent votes (in the right places) to steal the election

[rabidralph]

A prostitute lived in the complex. Barbara Bush just thought she was popular.

Kind of like Hillary.

[HateBill]

But Dean proved that they were not "Broken Glass Democrats." The most enthusiastic "Democrats" aligned with the candidate who attacked the *Democratic Party* most intensely. Dean called the Democratic Party "Republican Lite." Many of the "Broken Glass" leftists hate "mainstream" Democrats (Kerry, Edwards) almost as much as they hate President Bush.

Will "Broken Glass Bush Haters" (really what they are), vote en masse for a candidate they believe is almost as bad as Bush? Maybe the more pragmatic will, but I don't see "pragmatic" and "Deaniacs" in the same sentence.

[Tamzee]

A nice description of President Bush from Peggy Noonan :-)