Posted on 01/27/2005 9:39:48 AM PST by quidnunc
Michael Gerson has served George W. Bush magnificently as chief speechwriter, during both the 2000 campaign and the first term in office. His departure would have prompted us to declare his enormous talents "indispensable" to this president but for the two pieces of good news that accompanied its announcement. The first is that Gerson will remain at the White House in a new senior position. The second is that he will be replaced as chief speechwriter by another superb talent: our former colleague William McGurn, who was NR's Washington editor for three years in the early 1990s. We lost McGurn to the call of the Orient: He worked in Hong Kong for the Far Eastern Economic Review and the Wall Street Journal, but found time to contribute regularly to NR. He came back to the U.S. to become the chief editorial writer for the Journal. President Bush's public voice remains in the best possible hands.
Micheal*
>>I may be wrong, but isn't it the pc crowd, aka liberals, that have promoted the not "mentioning God" and keeping your faith private thing?<<
Isn't it funny how we are suppose to keep our faith private but the gays are suppose to be in your face and that's okay?
Sure you do. You cant be a rational thinking human being without one. A religion is simply a framework for thought and action.
Certainly possible.
There is no excuse for the personal viciousness of the assault, nor twisting the words of the President, to support what she THINKS he said rather than what he did.
My original thinking was that she was defensive about the idea Bush was entering territory competitive to Reagan, and therefore her contributions, that inspired the jealous bout. My feeling is that Reagan's achievements stand on his own, and he is not diminished by another achieving historic marker.
Peggy has since moved to illustrate for the rest of that jealousy may be involved, but that it is deeper than that. She is in favor of containment, limited vision, content with the expanse of freedom to stop at the current borders. I cannot respect HER vision. Steyn has an excellent rebuttal to this line of thinking.
Oh, so YOU know my religious feelings and thoughts better than I do?
Ridiculous comment.
I don't think that's it since the idea was always for her to come back to her day job after the election.
I think, ultimately, that she probably was sincerely a little off put by the speech (and maybe she was snubbed in preparing it, and that's the source of the annoyance), and she realized - as a creature of the media - that Peggy Noonan busting onm the speech is better TV and Radio than Peggy faling in line with a dozen other conservative commentators praising it.
Just marketing - it got her talked about. She succeeded. Now back to business.
Bush's speech was neither more or less God loaded than many of his famous predecessors. As Peggy Noonan claimed in her Apologia, the context has changed. Actually the only context that has changed is that of political correctness. Peggy definitely proved that she is rightfully a second string speech writer.
Two questions come to mind: (1) Why should a Swede care about who an American president employs as his wordsmith, and (2) exactly what business of that Swede's would it be in the first place?
By the way, Gerson isn't gone, he's just been promoted.
"...Noonan's obvious bitterness..."
She's got a response to all the criticism she rec'd posted today on Opinionjournal.com and she still sounds bitter and very defensive. She also made a very strange remark about taking the three months to help with the campaign being a great financial loss. Peggy, who cares? If you couldn't afford it, you shouldn't have done it.
I always thought she was a bit of a flake, and she really does think a bit too well of herself.
People can keep saying that but it doesn't change my personal reaction. I've never once thought negatively about any of Bush's mentions of god in speeches or interviews, but I was groaning before Bush even spoke--"Awright, already, with the god stuff." I started groaning again during the speech. Saying it was no more or less god-oriented doesn't make it so.
What are you talking about?
I agreed with some of her points but that's just laughable.
I'm American. Born and Raised. Just cause i live in sweden for work purposes doesnt make me swedish.
Sounds plausible to me.
President Bush's relentless God mentions??????????????????
Amen!
I didn't know he mentioned it "repeatedly" until Peggy told me.
He mentioned it in context.
See nuthin' wrong with it. What scares people is that he means it.
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