Posted on 01/27/2005 2:08:34 AM PST by bellevuesbest
I have been called old, jaded, a sourpuss. Far worse, I have been called French. A response is in order.
You know the dispute. Last week I slammed the president's inaugural address. I was not alone, but I came down hard, early and in one of the most highly read editorial pages in America. Bill Buckley and David Frum also had critical reactions. Bill Safire on the other hand called it one of the best second inaugurals ever, and commentators from right and left (Bill Kristol, E.J. Dionne) found much to praise and ponder. (To my mind the best response to the inaugural was the grave, passionate essay of Mark Helprin.) So herewith some questions and answers:
A week later, do I stand by my views?
Yes. If I wrote it today I wouldn't be softer, but harder.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
i think peggy can take the criticism, despite not liking it, and doesn't need you pegging her critics as spiteful, ignorant and jealous of her. most of us are just honestly perplexed as to how she could go from praising it immediately after it's delivery, to rather meanspirited sounding criticism the next day, which is continuing.
Right. Who cares what our enemies think of us. Imagine where we'd be if we took PN's advice in the 80s? Oh yea. The politburo would still be keeping a lid on the trash can known as the USSR.
Exactly, she was using words of praise for both President Bush and the speech. I remember her appearance on Hannity and Colmes on inauguration night as President Bush made the rounds at the balls.
"Noonan prefers "tidy" tyranny."
"Great way to put it."
That is a great way to put it.
If we just won't look at or consider "freedom-worthy", the millions of real live human beings living under tyranny then it's easier to just rope them off and bomb them all from the air when their leaders get out of line. Bush is right. freedom is God-given to ALL. "Tidy tyranny" is a convenience that has been going on far too long Peggy. Too much God Peggy? Not near enough is more like it.
Indeed!
You bring up a new possibility.
Maybe someone in the administration contacted her 2 or 3 months ago, to ask for her input and she turned them down.
Sorry, Peggy, but I don't buy it. There was nothing in Bush's speech to instill the fear and loathing that you put in your first piece. And this second piece doesn't convince me that you were right in the first piece.
She has been wrong on several columns. She is positioning herself in the Christie Todd Whitman section of the tent. That observation is not based on envy or spite. It is an objective point of view. You're darling Peggy is crossing over. Get over it.
They forgot context. All speeches take place within a historical context, a time and place. A good speech acknowledges context often without even mentioning it.
Of course, this is flat out wrong. The speech set up the context right at the start.
I honestly think Noonan has just dug in her heels here and as a result has lost of lot of my respect.
Define the freedom that God has given to ALL.
Hardly. I'm not jealous, envious, ignorant to the fact, or in spite of the fact she heaped praise on President Bush's speech on TV the night before the first column came out. She's done this to herself.
I'm neither envious or jealous of her present conundrum of having to clarify her previous column. Her greatest achievement at the outset of this column was the objective she achieved in the first place, which was that she continued to muddy up the waters of confusion.
Remember David Brock. He was one of the top conservatives in the 90s. Then he became very left. Though he was a closet gay and definitely had some issues.
You think this is bad....You should see the attacks on her from the left.
"And we must do nothing that provides our foes with ammunition with which they can accuse us of conceit, immaturity or impetuousness."
Now we know who John Kerry's speechwriter was.
Precisely.
BTW, what did this gal do that was helpful to the re-elect effort? Other than writing copy for a film (The Pitch) that no one saw on the networks, I can't think of anything. She was probably put in a cubicle somewhere and kept out of the way.
Read: "we don't want to tick off the French."
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