Posted on 10/16/2008 10:11:33 PM PDT by acsuc99
But we have seen Mrs. Palin on the national stage for seven weeks now, and there is little sign that she has the tools, the equipment, the knowledge or the philosophical grounding one hopes for, and expects, in a holder of high office. She is a person of great ambition, but the question remains: What is the purpose of the ambition? She wants to rise, but what for? For seven weeks I've listened to her, trying to understand if she is Bushian or Reaganite—a spender, to speak briefly, whose political decisions seem untethered to a political philosophy, and whose foreign policy is shaped by a certain emotionalism, or a conservative whose principles are rooted in philosophy, and whose foreign policy leans more toward what might be called romantic realism, and that is speak truth, know America, be America, move diplomatically, respect public opinion, and move within an awareness and appreciation of reality. But it's unclear whether she is Bushian or Reaganite. She doesn't think aloud. She just . . . says things. Her supporters accuse her critics of snobbery: Maybe she's not a big "egghead" but she has brilliant instincts and inner toughness. But what instincts? "I'm Joe Six-Pack"? She does not speak seriously but attempts to excite sensation—"palling around with terrorists." If the Ayers case is a serious issue, treat it seriously. She is not as thoughtful or persuasive as Joe the Plumber, who in an extended cable interview Thursday made a better case for the Republican ticket than the Republican ticket has made. In the past two weeks she has spent her time throwing out tinny lines to crowds she doesn't, really, understand.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
ugh. Noonan sounds like she thinks Governor Palin marched into McCain’s campaign office and told them she was taking over. So far, I haven’t observed the kind of “ambition” in Palin that Noonan seems so worried about. I guess if you can’t just report the facts, you can just make stuff up, huh? Noonan should retire.
What clues do we gain about Reagan there? Let's turn to the chapter titled "Who Was That Masked Man?". Here are some illuminating passages:
He was a modest man with an intellect slightly superior to the average.
He gleams; he is a mystery. He is for everyone there, for everyone who worked with him. None of them understand him. In private they admit it. You say to them, Who was that masked man?, and they shrug, and hypothesize.
James Baker said, He is the kindest and most impersonal man I ever knew.
An aide said, Beneath the lava flow of warmth there is something impervious as a glacier...
A woman who knew him said, He lived life on the surface where the small waves are, not deep down where the heavy currents tug. And yet he has great powers of empathy.
I’ll tell you something surprising: This sunny man touched so many Americans in part because they perceived his pain. They saw beyond the television image, they saw the flesh and blood, they felt those wounds, they caught that poignancy.
The reports and correspondents and smart guys, they missed it. But the people saw. They thought, Look at the courage it took at his age to be shot in the chest by a kid with a gun and go through healing and therapy and go out there again and continue being president, continue waving at the crowds as he walks to the car. Think of the courage that old man had!
He was a compulsive entertainer: He couldn’t not do it...All he needed was a cane, a straw hat, and a glove – Is everybody happy?
(It was a generous impulse, wasn’t it, to want to give people a lift? Or was it only or partly that he needed that laugh, needed the approval?)
He really always played himself; the vivid have no choice. That’s why he seemed both phony and authentic. Because he was. He was really acting but the part he played was Ronald Reagan.
But he held to the unfashionable. This man who wanted to be loved stood fast to his views and voiced them even though he knew the cultural leaders (by whom he wanted to be accepted, in whose movies her wanted to star) had contempt for what he thought...
[H]is cultural betters would think, He’s obviously sincere, but he’s so…simplistic. Or: unsophisticated. Or: such a radical, and dangerous.
Those who grew impatient with him or frustrated or resentful tried to cover it up. But sooner or later – and you really saw this in the Reagan years – what they were thinking could be seen in a sentence shot out, in a look or a shake of the head. They were thinking something like what Sergeant Warden said of the captain in From Here to Eternity: “He’d choke on his own spit if I weren’t here to clear his throat for him.” They’d say, with a certain edge, “The president isn’t a detail man” (the fool doesn’t know Antarctica’s the one on the bottom!); they’d say, “The president is a big picture man” (He wouldn’t know a fact if it ran up his nose!). You could see it in Deaver’s book, all the unexpressed hostility seeping out in those ‘The president of course has an amiable temperament, but he’s usually content to allow someone else to make the decisions’ sentences.
We made so much of those winks.
[His sense of humor] got him in trouble sometimes. After “We begin bombing in five minutes,” the aides of the first administration were frustrated because they knew his humor wasn’t being directed.
I have that book. I am ashamed to say that I adored Peggy Noonan. Yes, it was often sappy, but I still ate it up like an ice cream with just a bit too much syrup poured over the top.
Not any more. Never again will I purchase or read anything signed Peggy Noonan. Peggy, get over it. Kay Bailey wasn’t picked and with good reason. Your envy is glaringly obvious when you trash Sarah who is everything you admired in Ronald Reagan.
She will become less dangerous when her employment at the Wall Street Journal is terminated.
Wow. Noonan can’t seem to stop making a complete jackass out of herself.
It’s a real head-shaker. Noonan used to be thoughtful and eloquent, and now she’s just petty and small.
Peggy you are a bitter old shrew!!!! Go back to your penthouse and sip sherry with your liberal friends. You are a has-been. Sarah Palin makes no sense to you because you have no idea how the ‘little’ people live. She gets us, because she is us, You don’t because you’re not!!!
Have fun in your higher tax bracket with your man Barry!!!
The real mystery is, why do formerly serious writers like Noonan and Kathleen Parker dedicate entire columns to the freaking Republican VP(!!) candidate, even as everybody else is talking about the national debate that starred the top-of-the-ticket candidates, and Sara is out on the stump being rigorously ignored by most of the Democrat "mainstream" newsrooms anyway?
There is only one reason I can think of, and it boils down to primitive female cattiness and petty jealousy.
And wow, is it ever ugly.
What’s more, there is absolutely no point to Noonan’s column. It serves no purpose. Does she think McCain will “see the light” and dump Palin? (Sure, that’ll happen.) The only rational conclusion one can reach is that Noonan is a shrew, and shame on the Wall Street Journal for giving her a venue for her childish pouting.
What struck me about was it was its lazy editing. She spends one-third of the column taking swipes at other candidates before finally zeroing on the headline topic of the piece.
I get the sense she threw this all together at the last minute off the top of her head to meet the terms of her contract and WSJ just printed it.
When is Peggy going to run for office? She seems to have all the answers.
It helps Obama. That is the purpose.
I just read this article. What is with these conservatives? Why do they hate that Palin doesn’t sound like a pompous liberal arts professor? Everyone needs to go to the comment section for this and post something. I already did, hopefully it’ll be “approved” soon. I’m Paula.
Who loves Palin?
Ann Coulter, Michelle Malkin, and Laura Ingraham. The only ladies who matter. :-)
I am sure these are Peggy’s honest opinions. But they are dumb.
And I wish she would just shut up. Her prose has become even more annoying now that her “ideas” add no value anyway.
Peggy Noonan should wake up every morning and thank God that she was never a great enough person to be a candidate for Vice President of the United States. Her life is far less meaningfull. She will never be the person Sarah is. She will never have the courage or the guts that Sarah has.
If, god forbid something happens to John McCain. Sarah will step up and lead the country. and will do everything she can to keep us safe.
Sarah is a governor and could be VP soon. What did Peggy Noonan do ? Write speeches in the 80s ?
Peggy Noonan is now a bottom feeder.
Poor Peggy. You’re one of “them” now. Maybe you and Chris Buckley (aka Truman Capote wannabe) can have tea sometime.
Peggy, you should be ashamed of yourself for denigrating a good conservative woman. You’re morphing into a old elitist leftist and it’s not very becoming. Please, don’t ever refer to yourself as a conservative anymore. I’m sorry that I’ve taken time in the past to read your columns. You’re a disgrace and a backstabber to the conservative cause. Or is it just the green eyed monster??
Palin’s hot......Noonan’s not.
Sheesh. What an angry woman. She’s morphing into Maureen Dowd. Oh well, enjoy the cocktails with Brooks, Parker and Buckley, Ms. Noonan. No soup for you at the WH though when McCain and Palin take office....
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