Please explain the Little Big Man comment.
Per IMDB.com Tagline: Little Big Man Was Either The Most Neglected Hero In History Or A Liar Of Insane Proportion!
Note the either/or construction.
Now, note Peggy's construction:
But in a surprising way for the president the issue is win-win. If he loses in Congress, he lost on a great issue on which his large base will likely believe he was right, and on which history will not be able to prove him wrong. And if he wins, he allows the free market to energize and renew a huge creaky behemoth. My guess? Little Big Man is going to get reform.
This is an either/or, too. Either he loses in Congress, but wins with his base (and history can't prove him wrong, as Little Big Man) or wins and gets his reform.
Bush's either/or is a win/win (just like Little Big Man's either/or was to him). And she posits that Bush will get his reform...
The analogy is stretched and a little obscure, if you're not familiar with the movie (I wasn't, for one). Otherwise, we wouldn't be discussing it here, would we? But it is apt. And it's not demeaning.
Having to explain an analogy is analogous to having to explain a bad joke. It tells you it wasn't worth the effort...
Give Peggy a C+ for column-writing this time out. But she's back on board with the President and the program.
"Please explain the Little Big Man comment."
It's good to see the lobster shift is working hard on FR tonight. With some trepidation I read the new Peggy column and like you folks was really struck by her calling the President Little Big Man. I'm quite sure it is not intended as an insult so I'm guessing it's got something to do with Bush so often being "misunderestimated".
But she still seems off her feed to me. And she's betraying a very disturbing disturbing lack of faith in ordinary people's desire to have control over their own lives. The socialistic "idiotic simplicity" of the current soc. sec. system is not what made America great; and I'm sure Americans will manage fine under a new system. The current one cannot stand, and Noonan is foolish to attempt to elide that truth. Is she agreeing with the Dems who suddenly see "no problem" with soc. sec.? It's a demographic time bomb, and a way must be made to tie it to the individual worker. Interestingly, on Brit Hume's show last night, they said that Bush has ALWAYS has this as a political goal, even back to his first losing race for Congress ages ago.