Posted on 01/23/2005 10:02:07 AM PST by quidnunc
What a difference four years makes?
Maybe. President Bush certainly seemed more relaxed as he took office this time around. Gone were the darting eyes, clenched jaw and nervousness. He was confidant, even commanding. After a brisk wave to the crowd — his crowd — he seemed to sit back and drink in the whole pageant. He had, of course, changed physically. His hair was grayer, his face fuller and etched with new lines and wrinkles.
But there was more than the difference four years in the White House and one re-election can make in a president. Hanging over Bush's second inauguration and infusing the tone and content of his second inaugural was the difference a day makes.
That day — Sept. 11, 2001 — inevitably gave this inauguration a special aura. It made for what Bush, early in his address, called our "consequential times." It gave Thursday's prayers and hymns — "Bless this House" and "Heal our Land" — more meaning.
The United States is born again each inauguration day, but we are an older, less innocent land after 9/11. There was somberness amid the sunshine, an icy resoluteness in the celebration, and a deeper appreciation of life's fragility — our vulnerability — than four years ago. You might have seen it in the person of the ailing Chief Justice Rehnquist. Or felt it in the worry that we wouldn't get through another big national event without incident.
"After the shipwreck of communism came years of relative quiet, years of repose, years of sabbatical," Bush said. "And then there came a day of fire."
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...
President Bush's Second Inaugural Speech will be remembered through the ages for the daring of its vision, its commitment to freedom, and the in-your-face response to leftist criticism of neoconservatism. I was thrilled to hear President Bush call for the seeding of democracy everywhere. The old policy of containment, of tolerating totalitarianism as long as it didn't disturb the dinner plans of Foggy Bottom trust-fund bureaucrats, was immoral at its core. Neoconservatism is dedicated to the proposition that all — emphasis on all — peoples are deserving of freedom, not just those found on the faculty of Harvard and the editorial staff of the New York Times.
This was a relaxed, extremely confident George W. Bush. This was kick-ass conservatism at its finest. It was the old New Hampshire state motto writ large: "Live Free or Die."
This speech was the UN, the EU and all other enemies of freedom being told that they had better get in line or they will join the Soviet Union in the dustbin of history.
It was so nice to hear a speech by a conservative without all the touchy-feely Peegy Noonan-inspired "sensitive male" drivel that has bedeviled and shortchanged conservative rhetorical practices in the past. No Child Left Behind? Hell, the dumb ones should be left behind. I cringe every time I hear that repugnant alliteration "compassionate conservatism."
And I suspect that the real reason behind Ms. Noonan's petulant dissing of the Inaugural speech was the fact that neither of Ronald Reagan's Inaugural speeches came anywhere near the soaring eloquence and determination expressed in Dubya's Second Inaugural. I always felt that Ms. Noonan was a publicity hound and detracted from President Reagan's message.
A good presidential speechwiter is like a CIA undercover operative. You work in secret, you serve the president's agenda not your own, and you accept the fact that you have done important work that can never be discussed publicly.
Thank God the day of the apologetic, soccer-mom coddling conservative is over.
Let Howard Dean howl at the moon and go on about "the children." The adults are in charge and there is serious Al Qaeda, UN and Euroweenie butt-kicking that needs to be accomplished.
In the end, President Bush's Second Inaugural Speech can be summed up in two phrases: "Don't Tread on Me" and "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death."
Truer words were never spoken.
(William Grim in the Flyover Country Chronicles, January 21, 2005)
http://flyovercountrychronicles.blogspot.com/2005_01_01_flyovercountrychronicles_archive.html
Never liked Peggy Noonan's gushy style. Now it seems she's been exposed in some ways...more people will now feel the same way.
"...there is serious Al Qaeda, UN and Euroweenie butt-kicking that needs to be accomplished."
AMEN! to that.
What does Peggy Noonan have to do with this?
She was mildly critical of a few passages in Bush's speech; therefore, into the outer darkness with her!
Yeah, sure.
I think Peggy might have realized the power of a truly magnificent speech, one that is carried by its own strength and not that of the speaker.
Ypou mean other than taking snarky cheap shots at Bush in the WSJ which contradicted what she said on FOX News immediately after the speech?
I don't know David Reinhard or William Grim from a load of hay, but has anybody seen Bill Buckley's article laying around here anywhere?
I think we Pubbies have far over reacted to Noonan's comments. We always criticize Rats for their lack of diverse thinking.
So we are guilty too? Seems so.
Where's that FR clean-up maid?
I would like to hear her explain why she voted for the speech before she voted against it...having heard her comments on FOX, I was surprised to read her later WSJ piece.
Heck, I remember when freepers criticized Clinton's more modest Wilsonian pronouncements on Kosovo.....now they have become highly extreme and unquestiong advocates of U.S. world policing in the service of "liberty." My, how things have changed since the 1990s.
Next?...yer fergot Limbaugh...
"Simple Man" (Skynyrd Version)"
(To be sung to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man")
His Mama told Bill...when he was young...
"Slick, sit beside me...my eldest son.
My life's been wasted...on Boyz who Play...
So, please don't do this...you will thank me...Good Guys don't stray!!
Ah, yes...
Stop spendin' time...with that Hill'ry lass!
Her legs are stumps...and her ass is fat.
Bill, find a woman...oh, yeah...you truly love...
This Rodham chick, son...is Ol' Chi-ca-go Scum!!
Slick, life is simple...have a plan...
Oh, be someone...folks trust, then you're a Man.
Willie, be a simple, kindly man.
Oh, won't you do this...for me, Slick...if you can!
Forsake your lust...for the ChinaMan's gold...
Don't lust for Power...it corrupts your soul!
Slick, you can do this...oh baby...if you try...
All that I want for you, my son...is to say, 'I never lied!'
Slick, be a symbol...make your stand!
Bill, serve your Country...if you're called to Viet Nam!
Willie, life is simple...for a Man...
You've been blessed, Slick...so give up...those one-night stands!!"
Slick said, "I WILL!!"
(Guitar Jammin')
You know the story...Slick loved himself!
Bill's Lust For Power...eclipsed all else!
Committed TREASON...bombed babies...and HE LIED!
Killed folks in Kosovo, Good Lord, just to cover up his crimes!!!!
Now Slick's a symbol...I can't stand...
Gotta do something...perhaps, I'll start a band!!
Willie, he's a symbol...New World Man!
Good Folks, don't let this...Chi-Com Whore's...TREASON stand!
Willie, you're a simple, Traitorous Man...
You are "Guilty!"...time to pay The Band....
Mudboy Slim
I always liked Peggy but I didn't like her hatchet job in the WSJ. It put her in an unfavorable light in my eyes. At the same time Bush's speech wasn't IMO quite as "great" as many are making it out to be. It was lacking in some areas, for example, almost nothing about domestic policy. I know some will say that will be in his State of the Union speech but I believe it belonged in the Inauguration Speech as well.
Absolutely!
Her WSJ article smack of self-promoting opportunism to me.
My opinion for some time has been that she gets 'way more credibility than she deserves simply because she was Reagan's speech writer.
That 'thousand points of light' stuff she wrote for Bush (43) was nothing but touchy-feely mush which hung a 'Wimp!' sign around his neck at the beginning of his presidency.
I'd say you & Mr. Grim have that market cornered.
Peggy Noonan was more than mildly critical of the inaugural speech.
While I often agree with Peggy's opinions, I have always found Peggy's style to be overly wordy, pretenteous, supercilious, and pedantic. Her evaluation of the speech followed the same pattern with addition of superficial.
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