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Peggy Noonan: Way Too Much God
Wall Street Journal ^ | January 21, 2005 | Peggy Noonan

Posted on 01/20/2005 9:33:31 PM PST by RWR8189

Was the president's speech a case of "mission inebriation"?

It was an interesting Inauguration Day. Washington had warmed up, the swift storm of the previous day had passed, the sky was overcast but the air wasn't painful in a wind-chill way, and the capital was full of men in cowboy hats and women in long furs. In fact, the night of the inaugural balls became known this year as The Night of the Long Furs.

Laura Bush's beauty has grown more obvious; she was chic in shades of white, and smiled warmly. The Bush daughters looked exactly as they are, beautiful and young. A well-behaved city was on its best behavior, everyone from cops to doormen to journalists eager to help visitors in any way.

For me there was some unexpected merriness. In my hotel the night before the inauguration, all the guests were evacuated at 1:45 in the morning. There were fire alarms and flashing lights on each floor, and a public address system instructed us to take the stairs, not the elevators. Hundreds of people wound up outside in the slush, eventually gathering inside the lobby, waiting to find out what next.

The staff--kindly, clucking--tried to figure out if the fire existed and, if so, where it was. Hundreds of inaugural revelers wound up observing each other. Over there on the couch was Warren Buffet in bright blue pajamas and a white hotel robe. James Baker was in trench coat and throat scarf. I remembered my keys and eyeglasses but walked out without my shoes. After a while the "all clear" came,

(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: analyticalgenius; boldpeggy; gentlecritic; inauguraladdress; meeeeeooooow; noonan; pegomyheart; prescientpeg; sensiblechic; theantirove; traitor; w2; way2muchnoonan; whattawoman
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To: JeffAtlanta

Buckley is a drama queen too


481 posted on 01/21/2005 1:04:24 PM PST by Mo1 (Liberty will come to those who love it)
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To: JeffAtlanta
She offered up her analysis - that's all

Then why did she change her tune from what she said on TV yesterday?

482 posted on 01/21/2005 1:07:14 PM PST by Mo1 (Liberty will come to those who love it)
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To: RWR8189

I wasn't aware of that.
Although I haven't read the Wall Street Journal in quite a few years, I seem to remember some very impressive artwork, almost along the lines of currency printing.
Maybe they've changed.


483 posted on 01/21/2005 1:19:08 PM PST by yer gonna put yer eye out (Gettin' a PhD (Prettyhard on Democrats) at FR)
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To: cyncooper
Name one falsehood I have posted. Here you go...
Most posters have more than adequately offered more reasons for their opinion of Noonan's column than she offered for her opinion of Bush's speech.

484 posted on 01/21/2005 1:35:43 PM PST by JeffAtlanta
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To: exhaustedmomma
It is the name calling of conservatives to other conservatives who disagree that I find disconcerting.

While Noonan didn't name call, she did use highly charged and questionable terms in this piece. Words like "inebriated" and "defensive" and in her tv comments last evening "grating". So the posters here are responding to the person that threw out the first inflammatory words, not baselessly lashing out.

485 posted on 01/21/2005 1:37:45 PM PST by cyncooper
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To: JeffAtlanta

That is true and not a falsehood.


486 posted on 01/21/2005 1:39:34 PM PST by cyncooper
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To: pepperdog

"Alan Colmes is such a strange looking person. Do you think he's really an earthling?"

He bears a striking resemblance to that other leftist extra-terrestrial James Carville. Very reptilian...very scary!


487 posted on 01/21/2005 1:41:30 PM PST by PJBlogger (BEWARE HILLARY AND HER HINO)
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To: cyncooper

cyncooper, I wish to commend your integrity on this thread. Noonan made some fairly imprudent characterizations about GWB's speech. Her's is a subjective analysis: too defensive, too grating, too inebriated. She failed to support these insults. It is fair to nail her on it. I feel that many of the good folks on FR are just as qualified to comment on the speech as Noonan, maybe more.


488 posted on 01/21/2005 1:53:23 PM PST by Don'tMessWithTexas
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To: RWR8189

Here is a link to Jack Wheeler's comments about Ms. Noonon in a Newsmax article.

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/6/18/141839.shtml

Worth a look for an opinion of one who "worked" with the gracious lady. :-)


489 posted on 01/21/2005 1:56:47 PM PST by Prost1 (I get my news at Free Republic!)
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To: cyncooper
Most posters have more than adequately offered more reasons for their opinion of Noonan's column than she offered for her opinion of Bush's speech.

MOST posters have given any reasons - ad hominem attacks are not "reasons".

Saying that Noonan is just jealous because she didn't write it is just a baseless accusation and not a reason. Also, saying that "educated women tend to have a god problem" is not a reason.

Your falsehoods stem from the fact that you can't separate ad hominem attacks and insults from logical analysis. That's like saying that Bill Clinton's economic policies were bad because he is jerk.

490 posted on 01/21/2005 2:01:00 PM PST by JeffAtlanta
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To: Albion Wilde
"I've only read about half this massive thread, but regarding the music, I thought Red Sea's comment about Jewish prophecy of music like none that had ever yet been heard was very interesting. If it's true, then I guess we're not in the end times yet.

I was struck during the medley of classic patriotic songs that was played just after the speech: it opened with the melodic whistling of a single, thin fife on top of the brasses' more typical loud braying.

The meandering fife tune was eerily Middle Eastern in sound and feeling, reminiscent of bazaars and snake charmers. Music communicates directly to the heart and spirit, bypassing words. This Inauguration was being broadcast all over the Middle East by Al Jazeera and others. I thought that the fife arrangement, however inadvertent, was a subliminal message of harmony between our culture and theirs.

(BTW, the fife has an honored place in American history from the days of the Revolution. The appearance of the fife-playing Minuteman regiment in full costume gave me enormous joy.)"


Very nicely written, thanks!
491 posted on 01/21/2005 2:02:43 PM PST by Just mythoughts
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To: tarheelswamprat

Thanks for the Wheeler update. I think this is the piece I read after the Reagan funeral. It buttressed my opinion of Noonan as a bit too self-promoting, too "mooning" and romanticizing over her past in the WH,and, well, to use her words, a little too nuanced for me.

After reading this piece (I believe in Newsmax, as Wheeler writes regularly for them and he is a favorite of mine), I was not terribly surprised to see her trash the President's inaugural speech. How can the woman be so stupid--is she egotistical enough to think she could do better, and that her reputation is such that she can afford to do this?

It is very telling that all of Reagan's most famous quotes were written by the other writers and gotten to him around his "protectors" like Baker, who would never have dared to allow the President to utter such sentiments. It is much to Reagan's credit to recognize the drama and strength of these utterances.

vaudine


492 posted on 01/21/2005 2:13:04 PM PST by vaudine
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To: RWR8189
A lot different than her comments right after the speech on Fox.

I'm glad someone else other than myself caught this woman's blazing hypocrisy. Peggy Noonan is a phony.

493 posted on 01/21/2005 2:14:22 PM PST by Wolfstar (It's official. 'Beezie' is the new WH puppy's call name, per Mrs. Bush on TV 1/19/05.)
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To: vaudine
When I have seen her on TV, and some columns I have tried to read of hers, she always seems to be "styling", dreamy, kind of melancholly, too sweety, sweety.

I know she wraps herself in Regan's mantle, but the woman is a lousy writer, in my opinion. Her style is highly indirect, gauzy, fuzzy and rambling. If she ever gets to a point in a particular article, she sort of gets there almost by accident. I think she's a hypocrite and a phony.

494 posted on 01/21/2005 2:18:30 PM PST by Wolfstar (It's official. 'Beezie' is the new WH puppy's call name, per Mrs. Bush on TV 1/19/05.)
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To: cyncooper

I noted that statement also. An extraordinary point-of-view in many ways.


495 posted on 01/21/2005 2:27:07 PM PST by GVnana (If I had a Buckhead moment would I know it?)
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To: JeffAtlanta

Your falsehoods about me stem from your inability to distinguish my writings from others and your propensity to take a very few posts (from others, certainly not me) containing ad hominem statements and declaring the majority of the thread is composed of such and then applying my correct description of the majority of posts to the minority.

In addition, you're a bore (as in boring...like Barack).


496 posted on 01/21/2005 2:33:54 PM PST by cyncooper
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To: JeffAtlanta
Then you should tell this to William Buckley as well because he didn't like the speech either. Reagan credits Buckley as the father of the modern conservative movement so I guess your observation doesn't hold water.

Ummmmm........Mo's comments were not directly in relation to the speech, Jeff.

Before you jump in to criticize, you should check out what's going on.

I'm not at all surprised that Buckley wasn't enamored with the speech (though this has nothing to do with who the father of conservatism is........and I didn't need Reagan to tell me it was Buckley, even if you did).

Buckley's not a dreamer or visionary; the President is.

497 posted on 01/21/2005 2:37:14 PM PST by ohioWfan (Have you PRAYED for your President today?)
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To: cyncooper
What you are saying sounds reasonable to me.

Some of the responses on this thread bothered me, thats why I made my points.

People seemed to be keying in on the emotions of the moment, rather than examining her actual thesis. Ive seen it on Michelle Malkin threads, now Peggy, and Im predicting it will be Laura next, when the immigration legislative debate heats up. Some of the people piling on dont seem to have much of a posting history around here, either.

Peggy didn't help her cause, however, by writing an unfocused article, and her timing was not so hot.

I still don't buy the title, it doesnt work with the content of the article...and it doesn't seem consistent with Peggy and her belief system. Peggy is a solid Catholic. Maybe her editor chose the title.
498 posted on 01/21/2005 2:38:21 PM PST by Dat Mon (will work for clever tagline)
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To: Wolfstar
I know she wraps herself in Regan's mantle, but the woman is a lousy writer, in my opinion. Her style is highly indirect, gauzy, fuzzy and rambling

Rambling is a good word to discribe this article

I still haven't figured out why she wrote about the fire alarm and Baker in his trench coat or her remembering her eye glasses and not her shoes

499 posted on 01/21/2005 2:44:19 PM PST by Mo1 (Liberty will come to those who love it)
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To: jwfiv

The meat of her criticism...



...The president's speech seemed rather heavenish. It was a God-drenched speech. This president, who has been accused of giving too much attention to religious imagery and religious thought, has not let the criticism enter him. God was invoked relentlessly. "The Author of Liberty." "God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind . . . the longing of the soul." ....




Maybe Satan should run for president.


500 posted on 01/21/2005 2:46:30 PM PST by Arthur Wildfire! March (The Four Law Breakers: Senators Rockefeller, Durbin, Carl Levin, Ron Wyden)
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