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'I Hope She Drowns'- The implosion of the Democratic Party
Opinion Journal Wall Street Journal ^ | 2/2/06 | PEGGY NOONAN

Posted on 02/02/2006 6:11:22 AM PST by areafiftyone

The president's State of the Union Address will be little noted and not long remembered. There was a sense that he was talking at, not to, the country. He asserted more than he persuaded, and he chose to redeclare his beliefs rather than argue for them in any depth. If you believe, as he does, that the No. 1 priority for the American government at this point in history is to lead an international movement for political democracy, and if you believe, as he truly seems to, that political democracy is in and of itself a certain bringer of world-wide peace, than this speech was for you. If not, not. It went through a reported 30 drafts, was touched by many hands, and seemed it. Not precisely a pudding without a theme, but a thin porridge.

It was the first State of the Union Mr. Bush has given in which Congress seemed utterly pre-9/11 in terms of battle lines drawn. Exactly half the chamber repeatedly leapt to its feet to applaud this banality or that. The other half remained resolutely glued to its widely cushioned seats. It seemed a metaphor for the Democratic Party: We don't know where to stand or what to stand for, and in fact we're not good at standing for anything anyway, but at least we know we can't stand Republicans.

There was only one unforgettable moment, and that was in a cutaway shot, of Hillary Clinton, who simply must do something about her face. When the president joked that two people his father loves are turning 60 this year, himself and Bill Clinton--why does he think constant references to that relationship work for him?--it was Mrs. Clinton's job to look mildly amused, or pleasant, or relatively friendly, or nonhostile.

(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 109th; botfest2006; bush43; noonan; sotu
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To: MizSterious

Maureen Dowd?? Gimme a break.


81 posted on 02/02/2006 6:58:00 AM PST by workerbee (A person's a person no matter how small.)
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To: FrPR

The Man is not a great public speaker.

But he's got guts.

He means what he says.

And he keeps his promises.

What's not to like?




Concise.

True.

Bump.


82 posted on 02/02/2006 6:59:26 AM PST by headsonpikes (Genocide is the highest sacrament of socialism.)
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To: kevkrom

Peggy does have one main point, but if she wears a hat, it's barely noticeable.


83 posted on 02/02/2006 7:00:34 AM PST by MizSterious (Anonymous sources often means "the voices in my head told me.")
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To: areafiftyone

How soon they forget. How sudden.

( They never even knew.)

At one point in time, you were truly the annointed one.

What's left is a dogs breakfast of cruel, heartless, uncomprehending babble. They quite simply do not get it.

Never did.

It's simply a case of "Peg before swine".

Face it. No hope is left when you are mentioned in the same breath as William Kristol.

Take heart,Lass. Some of us were there...and we fell in Love.


84 posted on 02/02/2006 7:00:59 AM PST by CBart95
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To: areafiftyone
Remembering the men and women of Flight 93 isn't a self-indulgence but a duty.

Worth repeating.

85 posted on 02/02/2006 7:01:17 AM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: Bahbah
Peggy longs for the days when she was a young hottie and important...

Noonan thinks that nothing is important outside of Ronald Reagan and his cold warrior speeches.

Also, Noonan has lately moved on from simply being wrong to being sickening, especially with her upper-crust-of-society way of speaking.

If fact did you notice that it is NOONAN who seems to be talking "at" us, not President Bush in the SOTU speech. GWB is so folksy in his mannerisms that he NEVER seems to be talking at anyone.

Which leads me to the obvious conclusion that Noonan is now PROJECTING her own foibles, just as the Democrats and leftists have been doing the past four years.

A shame really, Noonan can be enlightening, but not when she gets into this East Coast criticism mode in which she dismisses anything with a twang of country as being dumb.

86 posted on 02/02/2006 7:01:37 AM PST by Edit35
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To: PilloryHillary

...and I walk around like this, so I don't get confused with Helen Thomas...

87 posted on 02/02/2006 7:02:02 AM PST by Zavien Doombringer (13th AF, 3rd TFW, 3rd AGS, 3rd AMU - ESC The Blue Screw will get you too! 86-89)
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To: workerbee

Her dislike of the President is very Dowd-ish.


88 posted on 02/02/2006 7:02:42 AM PST by MizSterious (Anonymous sources often means "the voices in my head told me.")
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To: poncho67
Republicans have crazies. All parties do.

Not really. The Pubs pretty much expelled the craziest of the crazies from our midst in the late 80s and early 90s - and it was key to the Republican Revolution. If the Dems don't do the same, and distance themselves from the whackjobs in their own party, they will be irrelevant in 10-20 years.

89 posted on 02/02/2006 7:02:53 AM PST by Terabitten (The only time you can have too much ammunition is when you're swimming.)
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To: areafiftyone

Peggy jumped the shark long ago. It would seem that the shark bit her on the arse as she passed overhead!

LLS


90 posted on 02/02/2006 7:03:02 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (Preserve America... kill terrorists... destroy dims!)
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To: MizSterious

Stuff & nonsense. So she didn't wet her pants over the SOTU address. Off with her head!

Hyperbole is better suited to DU'ers.


91 posted on 02/02/2006 7:07:03 AM PST by workerbee (A person's a person no matter how small.)
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To: workerbee

Wet her pants? My, aren't you mannerly!

Whether or not she needs Dependz, it was an ugly column--well-written, since she is a talented writer, but with just enough of the Dowd-ish fishwifery to bring the comparison about.

So you didn't like the speech. Fine, go write a fan letter to Noonan. I did like it, and many here did also.


92 posted on 02/02/2006 7:12:51 AM PST by MizSterious (Anonymous sources often means "the voices in my head told me.")
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To: areafiftyone

ping


93 posted on 02/02/2006 7:12:52 AM PST by TNdandelion
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To: sauropod
I'm not real pleased with the guest worker program he's pushing.

Just take heart in the fact that it will never make it through Congress. He proposed it in Jan 2004 and Nov 2004 and it was declared DOA both times. As Tancredo said..."Their amnesty plan was dead on arrival when they sent it to the Congress in January, and if they send the same pig with lipstick back to Congress next January, it will suffer the same fate."

We do however, need to give Bush credit for at least addressing the issue, whether we feel he is right or wrong. If Congress doesn't like his plan, it is up to them to put together one that is to their liking and we should hold them accountable for not addressing the issue in a timely fashion.

94 posted on 02/02/2006 7:13:32 AM PST by ravingnutter
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To: areafiftyone; altura; maica; txrangerette
There is no reason for Peggy to have (inaccurately) bashed the President's speech in order to make her REAL point.

Her comments about the RATs' implosion are accurate, but her petty critique of the speech itself make her look, well.............petty. Like an out of work speechwriter.

The speech was great.........strong, bold, in your face at the Dems. And Peggy is right about a party that is being yanked by their nose rings by Kos and moveon.org. She should have left her sour grapes opinion of the speech out of this.

(Then again, it's not as bad as her 'God-drenched' trainwreck of a review of the President's visionary, eloquent 2nd Inaugural Address........)

95 posted on 02/02/2006 7:13:47 AM PST by ohioWfan (PROUD Mom of an Iraq War VET! THANKS, son!!!!)
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To: Rightwing Conspiratr1; RebelBanker
It's not hatred. It's elitism.

She thinks she can write better speeches than he gives.

96 posted on 02/02/2006 7:14:42 AM PST by ohioWfan (PROUD Mom of an Iraq War VET! THANKS, son!!!!)
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To: areafiftyone

bttt


97 posted on 02/02/2006 7:14:52 AM PST by PogySailor (Semper Fi to the 3/1 H&S Company in Haditha.)
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To: areafiftyone

Good post. I especially like....

"The venom is bubbling on websites like Kos, where Tuesday afternoon, after the Alito vote, various leftists wrote in such comments as "F--- our democratic leaders," "Vichy Democrats" and "F--- Mary Landrieu, I hope she drowns." The old union lunch-pail Democrats are dead, the intellects of the Kennedy and Johnson era retired or gone, and this--I hope she drowns--seems, increasingly, to be the authentic voice of the Democratic base"

The democratic party is in worse shape than I thought. It is a dying party.


98 posted on 02/02/2006 7:16:35 AM PST by Cruz
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To: plain talk
"Quite a contrast to the Clinton tactical bean-counter speeches."

- Yes, I still remember the moment in one of the Sink Emperors State of the Union's droning platitudes to feeeeeelings, how he introduced what was to be his "Medicare Plan". At the critical moment he took from his breast pocket what looked like a credit card and, waving it dramatically about, promised that soon every American would have one just like it that would guarantee FREE health care. I was reminded of a carnival barker unveiling the miracle potato peeler to the crowd of midway rubes.
He then announced that his co-President, Hitlery, would head the think tank brain trust that would bring this miracle about. The Dems and the MSM lapped it up.
As with any initiative by Slick, it wasn't so important that you did anything but it was the intention that mattered.
And so it was with the Medicare debacle which unraveled as soon as Hitlery turned her powerful intellect loose on the matter. Slick wandered off to diddle Monica and the great initiative was pissed away by incompetence and disinterest.
99 posted on 02/02/2006 7:17:42 AM PST by finnigan2
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To: RexBeach

"Then there are the Democrats. They are the most superb complainers in the land, but have not had an original idea since the 1930s. Most of those, in retrospect, turned out to be dreadful, and still harness the nation to a panoply of entitlement programs that threaten to bankrupt us."

I was just having that exact same argument with my liberal sister this morning. What you stated is exactly what I told her. So, there are at least two of us in America that see things for what they are, LOL! ;)


100 posted on 02/02/2006 7:18:57 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin (Save The Earth. It's The Only Planet With Chocolate.)
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