A lot different than her comments right after the speech on Fox.
Who is Peggy Noonan?
I'm shocked that Peggy is dissing the speech. A little speechwriter envy, perhaps? Very odd column.
Sounds like she's envious that she's no longer writing speeches for a President.
I can't believe she is saying this.
The Planet of War needs our compassionate touch, no doubt about it.
Peggy's usually right in her assessments.
This time she's wrong.
Sounds like she might be a bit jealous that she didn't get to pen those words
God-drenched?
Nah.
I thought it a damn fine speech, in all ways
BTTT
I think Ellen Goodman logged in on Peggy's computer.
Not enough GOD!!
Why does nearly every talking head suddenly have an aversion to GOD? Oh yes!! Getting ready to get rid of the US Constitution and replace it with the European Version, which is always better than anything US!!
I mean look at the COFFEE commercials, buy this EUROPEAN COFFEE MAKER, or this EUROPEAN COFFEE!!
What I would like to know is what the H### do a bunch of TEA DRINKING EUROPEANS KNOW ABOUT COFFEE???
About as much as they Know about writing a Constitution, NOTHING!!!
My family left the LOWER END OF THE GENE POOL for a good reason, and that was to get away from the oppression of these European Powers!! What IDIOT has decide to go back into this CESSPOOL of STUPIDITY?? and OPPRESSION!!
I sense that Peggy is about to go south on W. Totally uncalled for article and not even close to the truth.
I liked the speech, and I'm an agnostic. It wasn't meant to deal with specifics; he'll save that for the State of the Union. It was an articulation of his vision of freedom. It might have been utopian, but it was meant to be.
Ms. Noonan is lavishly praised in TV intros when she appears. She was a speech writer for Reagan, I believe. However, at and after Reagan's funeral, I read some comments about her from the fellow speech writers of her time in the WH. None of them sat with her at the funeral and really did not seem to care for her. The impression I got was that she was egotistic and pushy and not well liked.
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. This sounds like she is miffed about something. Maybe she has not been called on as much as she would like to have been, or not deferred to enough by the media. In this column, she has definitely made a bid to be called by judy W. Katy C. and the usual suspects to bash Bush. Look for her on the Katy and Judy shows tomorrow or the next day.She speaks of nuance, but she is a little too nuanced for me.
I thought the President's speech was great. If he had been able to present it with the impact of a Ronald Reagan with the cameeras rolling, it would have been truly the greatest, ever.
vaudine
This is--how else to put it?--over the top. It is the kind of sentence that makes you wonder if this White House did not, in the preparation period, have a case of what I have called in the past "mission inebriation." A sense that there are few legitimate boundaries to the desires born in the goodness of their good hearts.
One wonders if they shouldn't ease up, calm down, breathe deep, get more securely grounded. The most moving speeches summon us to the cause of what is actually possible.
With all due respect, Peggy, you are selling the speech short. Bush has issued an audacious challenge for the U.S. to undertake what might seem impossible to some.
So did John F. Kennedy issue a similarly audacious challenge:
"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth."
We did that. We can do this, too. It will make the world a better place...and the U.S. a safer place, as well.
I agree with Peggy. It was a mediocre speech. We got a lot of God Bless America and a lot of appeasing speech toward those who would like to see us all dead. Very contradictory.
With all the "Liberty and justice for all" yadayadayada--it reminded me of the speeches you hear from the Boy Scouts on Flag Day in your local park.
Nothing intellectual; nothing soaring; nothing inspirational.
Parts of it sounded like those speeches the FBI writes for parents of kidnapped children to give publicly when they beg for their children's lives. The language of these statements is purposely bland, vague, spoken directly to the criminal hostage-taker, and designed NOT TO PISS HIM OFF.
I hated the part where W equated the cult of Islam with the Judeo-Christian traditions that have made this country what it is today.
Right on, George--DON'T PISS THEM OFF. They may have a dirty bomb inside DC.
Well, I read it, and the title is a bit out of line with what she actually says.
She says she thinks it was too over the top in the description of how much freedom we will spread etc. and was making Earth into heaven when it is not.
I disagree with her. I thought the speech was very well done and inspiring. No, we won't end tyranny, but I did not find the speech over the top. And the invocation of God is classic Bush.