Peggy Noonan: Speak Softly, Mr. Bush

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Thursday, July 15, 2004 | PEGGY NOONAN

[Atlantic Friend]

A very clever article.

[Pokey78]

Peggy ping.

[OldFriend]

A little too clever. Contemplating the navel kind of clever.....IMO.

[Atlantic Friend]

Why do you think so ?

[RottiBiz]

Thanks, Pokey.

Good advice -- I hope someone is listening.

[7thson]

Here we go again. Sound familiar? I see a recurring theme in her opinion pieces of late. President Bush is good, but he is no Ronal Reagan. Well, guess what Peggy? He never said he was Reagan. I am also getting tired of her reminding her readers in every column that she use to write speeches for President Reagan. How long is she going to milk that job?

The one comment of hers that irked me extremely was the assertion that Western Democracy is not for everyone. I think she misses the fact the foundation of Western Democracy and civilization is Christianity. Is she saying that we should not promote Christianity? Time to retire Peggy! Again, the young lions such as Coulter and Ingraham need you to move over. Ann has the right idea – convert the madmen!

[OldFriend]

WE ARE AT WAR, THIS IS NO TIME TO BE DOWNPLAYING THE DANGER AND TRYING TO MAKE NICE NICE TO EVERYONE SO THEY WON'T WORRY.

[NHResident]

Peggy needs to escape this 'Slough of Pointless Intropspection.' She seems to me to have lost her focus on current events. I find her writing tedious and cloying as she wanders around to no end. She is no longer witty, precise and exactly to the point. Now she is maudlin, sentimental and dull. Hopefully, this is a temporary thing.

[crz]

I agree. While she was a great speach writer, she has let it get to her and thinks she can do no wrong.

[Max Combined]

Peggy is too emotional. Sometimes it works for her, but not this time.

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

Gotta agree. She is becoming ever so clever and ponderous. Peg thinks we all long to live boring lives (Unlike her of course, because she used to be a speechwriter for RWR. Twenty years ago.) Well that may be so, but we don't have that luxury.

War has come to OUR shores. WE have been attacked and we cannot return to normalcy because, with the shadow of suitcase bombs and chemical threats, things just ain't normal. Until we eliminate the threat we must assume a war footing.

I get the feeling the Peggy is triangulating and morphing herself into another Arianna Huffington. Land 'o Goshen! she is becoming a wimpy hand wringer.

[Dog Gone]

I think she misses the fact the foundation of Western Democracy and civilization is Christianity.

I have to disagree with that. Democracy was invented in a pagan society well before the birth of Christ. Christianity also spread and thrived for more than a thousand years under some of the most autocratic and authoritarian regimes ever known on this planet.

I'd agree that Christianity is the foundation of most of our cultural values today, but that's rather different from your statement.

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

Maybe Peggy is longing to meet a nice guy that will take her away from the east coast to a ranch out West. Regardless, she has lost her mojo.

[Wait4Truth]

IMHO, Peggy has lost her way. Maybe it is HER that is tired of wartime..too bad. I remain convinced that she is afraid that George W. Bush will be seen, in time, as an even more consequential president than Ronald Reagan. Perhaps she would like Kerry to win to make sure that doesn't happen. Personally, I am done with her and her maudlin little essays.

[Siobhan]

Peggy ping.

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

What I wrote about a few weeks ago was my fear that the American people have grown or are growing tired of the heightened drama of the times. Americans like drama in their lives--they like graduations and first jobs and prizes and the birth of a baby in the family; they like triathalons and great stories and local mysteries. They like movement and action on a personal level. But they do not want it on a historical level if they can avoid it. They don't want to send their sons, or daughters, off to war. They don't like that kind of excitement, or they don't like it for long. This is part of why we used to be called Isolationists. We weren't and aren't--we just have a bias for peace. Can that bias be overcome? Of course. Pearl Harbor overcame it. The Soviet desire to expand and impose communism overcame it. Sept. 11 did too. Which gets us to Mr. Bush, and Mr. Kerry, and which of the two is likelier to make things historically boring again.

You may say history will never be boring again, and I'd agree with you. And you may say "Bush and perseverance" is the way to achieve progress, that victory in Iraq and against terrorism is the only path to something like the old boredom, and the old safety. I'm with you there, too.

Or you may decide that Mr. Kerry, by jumbling things and murking them up and speaking French will, by his very presence, tend to calm things down because--well, because he doesn't really seem deeply wedded to any particular principle, or even to long-term strategic thinking in the national interest. And the world can tell, and a good portion of the world will like him all the better for these flaws. And so will some voters

Synopsis: First, she states that 9/11 has overcome our tendency to like things boring. Then, she asks which candidate is likely to help us make things boring again. Then, she agrees that things will not be boring again. Then, she agrees that Bush and perserverance is the way to go. Then, she just blathers for the rest of the piece, looking for a point. Conclusion: Somebody needs to tell Peggy Noonan to stick a sock in it. If she doesn't have a clear idea about something, she should just keep her yap shut.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Quit making sense.

[Liberty Valance]

"Do I, and others who have written on this subject, think that what might be called the new nervousness should compel the Bush administration to stop fighting the fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, and change its policy in the war on terror? Should we, in a word, withdraw?"

A lazy question but I shall try to answer:

9/11/01 NEVER FORGET!

[Don'tMessWithTexas]

Hey Peg! Appeasement, withdrawl and surrender is no way help things calm down become boring again.