It's obvious she ain't got a clue what it's like to have a true walk with OUR LORD, it's all about HIM - JESUS.
Posted on 01/21/2005 4:19:45 AM PST by Mikmur
PEGGY NOONAN
Way Too Much God Was the president's speech a case of "mission inebriation"?
The inaugural address itself was startling. It left me with a bad feeling, and reluctant dislike. Rhetorically, it veered from high-class boilerplate to strong and simple sentences, but it was not pedestrian. George W. Bush's second inaugural will no doubt prove historic because it carried a punch, asserting an agenda so sweeping that an observer quipped that by the end he would not have been surprised if the president had announced we were going to colonize Mars. A short and self-conscious preamble led quickly to the meat of the speech: the president's evolving thoughts on freedom in the world. Those thoughts seemed marked by deep moral seriousness and no moral modesty.
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."
And yet such promising moments were followed by this, the ending of the speech. "Renewed in our strength--tested, but not weary--we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Peggy better pray that Bush wins the war on terror. Otherwise talk like this will behead poor Peggy.
It's obvious she ain't got a clue what it's like to have a true walk with OUR LORD, it's all about HIM - JESUS.
You summed it up perfectly, in fewer words than I ever could!
You are leaping to unwarranted conclusions. In a politician I want less of the "I am hearing voices" stuff and more specifics of what the voices are telling him to do. I don't need him to assert that he is following God or Christ. I need to know what he intends to do and then I can decide whether I believe that he is following God or Christ.
Isn't this the woman who coined the pharses "thousand points of light" and "shining city on a hill"? She has no business commenting that Bush's speech was over the top.
Thanks. I realized Peggy was 'round the bend when she dedicated almost half of her Reagan eulogy piece to a petty twenty year old squabble she had had with another WH speechwriter.
Dear ArGee, this was not my post. Judgment was not my topic regarding Peggy. I took issue with claming Peggy was right and then comparing President Bush and Mommhamad on post #82.
It absolutely, positively, most certainly is not!
Where on earth (prior to the ascension of of GWB) would you ever get such an idea? Bush makes Wilson look like a reasonable man.
So, let us turn the question around. Could you please tell us what you believe to have been the vision that Bush was trying to set forth, and then indicate what "content" supports your interpretation of that vision.
I not even certain that Clinton ever had a particularly memorable (official) speech?...:-)
I do remember the SOTU speech in which he promised to give everything to everybody. I'm surprised I was able to sit through that one.
I also remember that Clinton spoke a little like a preacher and he really liked to use words in groups of three. For example, in his first inaugural address he said, "Americans have ever been a (1)restless, (2)questing, (3)hopeful people" and "(1)Our hopes, (2)our hearts, (3)our hands, are with those on every continent who are building democracy and freedom."
I certainly don't fault Noonan for letting us know her opinion. And, since Noonan was a speechwriter, she would be looking at Bush's speech from an entirely different point of view than mine.
In the end, I can't express how much I loved all the references Bush made to God. I love to see someone be "himself." And it seems like Bush was being Bush. You'd think that humanists would cheer Bush on, for being himself.
What did you think of Clinton's speeches?
Yes, odd isn't it?
Only conservatives find his tirade chilling.
"Where on earth (prior to the ascension of of GWB) would you ever get such an idea? Bush makes Wilson look like a reasonable man."
L O L
No.
She is right on the mark here. For those of us who are constitutional conservatives, this was an enormous miscalculation in my view.
Why am I not surprised?
Don't let the jingoistic fundamentalists on here discourage you.
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