Posted on 06/13/2004 9:04:38 PM PDT by Pokey78
What was the meaning of the past remarkable nine days? You cannot stop the American people from feeling what they feel and showing it. From the crowds at Simi Valley to the hordes at the Capitol to the men and women who stopped and got out of their cars on Highway 101 to salute as Reagan came home--that was America talking to America about who America is.
It was a magnificent teaching moment for the whole country but most of all for the young, who barely remembered Ronald Reagan or didn't remember him at all. This week they heard who he was. The old ones spoke, on all the networks and in all the newspapers, and by the end of the week it was clear that Ronald Reagan had suddenly entered the Lincoln pantheon. By Friday it was no longer a question, as it had been for years, whether he was one of our top 10 presidents. It was a question only whether he was in the very top five or six--up there with Lincoln and Washington. An agreement had been reached: the 20th century came down to FDR and RWR.
What is important now is that we continue to speak of the meaning of his leadership. Not bang away about what a great guy he was--there are a lot of great guys--but what huge things he did, not because he had an "ideology" but because he had a philosophy, a specific one that had specific meaning. He was the great 20th-century conservative of America. He applied his philosophy to the realities of the world he lived in. In doing so he changed those realities, and for the better. This is what we must pass on.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
'Tisn't I who is frustrated and angry.
If you could see the smile on my face as I type this, you'd know it wasn't me either. So it must be some guy behind that tree! Have a wonderful afternoon!
Is that Annie Oakley on your webpage? Whoever it is looks like one tough lady.
To be honest, I don't know her name. I got the picture from another freeper, but I think she IS a cowgirl.
She's my freeper friend's and my mascot, so to speak.
Methinks the market for writings by 'Reagan Speechwriters' is finite, and Peggy aims to keep it for herself.
Methinks you've hit the nail on the head.
All I know is if and when Peggy Noonan writes her "book" I'm pre ordering it.
I question the need for these lines as well.
Did you read her book, "What I Saw At The Revolution?"
hence: What I saw at the Funeral.
Her undeniable talent as a wordsmith has taken her a long way. There's no crime in that. Robinson's complaint is a case of sour grapes.
Noonan is far too decent a person to take credit for Reagan's speechifying genius, and I believe she's given him full credit for his success in that area. In any case, I have yet to see a direct quote from her which says anything like "I put the words in the president's mouth."
I happen to know the Noonan family a bit. Peggy Noonan's sister got married out of my parent's home on Long Island. My sister and Peggy Noonan's sister are friends. They are salt of the earth people, though not entirely without the troubles that find their way into any family. Noonan is a sweet, highly intelligent lady who loves Ronald Reagan. It is silly to believe that she employs a "me me me" approach to writing, or that there's anything "gonzo" about her style. In fact I can't think of a more inept comparison than one between Peggy Noonan and Hunter S. Thompson.
She rose in the world of journalism because her readership and her admirers grew. It's as simple as that.
"Did you read her book, "What I Saw At The Revolution?""
No, I didn't get around to it. I did however, make the connection you cite in a later post to me.
Thank you. This is not a "rip" on Peggy Noonan. It's a bewilderment with the second half of one column.
I think the bewilderment is because we hold her in such high esteem.
Noonan described "the hack" as possessing a "greasy political style." For my money, that describes Rohrabacher to a "t."
Having said that, I must plainly admit I have no certain knowledge of who Noonan is talking about.
Also, the anonymous lady is dressed in a later fashion, probably around 1910-1915 from the corsets and style of the hat. Annie Oakley was born in 1860 and was active with Buffalo Bill's show from 1885 until severely injured in a train wreck in 1901, she did recover and did some limited touring thereafter, but the height of her career was before the turn of the century.
It's silly - until you read what she writes.
No, did she give Ben Elliott the kind of praise in that book that she condemns the "hack" and "haircut man" for withholding?
I found her photo last year and shared her with cyncooper. She's just an anonymous woman who had her photo taken almost 100 years ago. I deal in antique photographs, and this one really caught my eye. I like her toughness...and her hat.
agreed
I love the hat too. We have a pic of my grandmother taken around 1916 in a similar hat - broader brim and feathers instead of a rosette, but the same general effect . . . she was quite the fashion plate.
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