Peggy Noonan: Plainspoken Eloquence

Opinion Journal ^ | 01/31/2002 | Peggy Noonan

[Pokey78]

In the State of the Union, a new vision for the world.

State of the Union addresses are usually reviewed in terms of "eloquence," or "drama," or how the overnight polls register the public's reaction. But for sheer seriousness, for the depth and scope of the information imparted, the president's State of the Union the other night was, simply, staggering.

[Happygal]

Ping! She's done it again J. :-)

[FairWitness]

Mr. Bush also is not by nature given to laundry-list speeches. One senses he understands that politicians who do them are trying to obscure the fact that they don't have a philosophy. They hope the adding up of program upon program will give the appearance of philosophy. But Mr. Bush has a philosophy. It is conservative.

Just so.

[BADROTOFINGER]

Man, she is such an eloquent writer!

You nailed that. Noonan does for eloquent writing what Sowell and D'Souza do for in-depth lucidity, Steyn+Coulter+O'Rourke do for sarcasm, and what Lenin+Marx+Rather do for propaganda (unfortunately)...JFK

[Rocko]

Bump.

[pollyshy]

Mr. Bush's eloquence is in his plainspokenness, in the fact that each word is a simple coin with a definite worth.

It would seem that Parsing the President's Words has, blessedly, become a thing of the past.

Thanks for posting this, Pokey. BTTT

[shattered]

Thanks!

As more and more libs hopefully begin supporting and actually enjoying our President this country will have a fighting chance against terrorism and hate! Go GW!

[StarFan]

Thanks for the ping Pokey. She not only looked beautiful (new hairstyle) on Fox and Friends but spoke so eloquently about the man we're proud to call our President. When asked if she would have written a more flowery speech, she said (paraphrasing) oh no, it would not be fitting for the man who speaks simply, forcefully and from the heart. How better to prove her point than to hear him utter these words in NC yesterday: "Fight on, America! I love you! God bless!"

[Snow Bunny]

Thank you Pokey !!!

[TontoKowalski]

May I be added to your bump list, too, please?

Does anyone happen to know who is honcho-ing the Mark Steyn list? He's a new favorite of mine, and I don't want to miss out.

[Pokey78]

You have been added to both lists.

[TontoKowalski]

Thanks for your kindness. Bumping the article one more time.

[stanz]

A heart-warming article. I especially love how Peggy Noonan can summarize in a sentence what the rest of us take paragraphs to do:

Mr. Bush's eloquence is in his plainspokenness, in the fact that each word is a simple coin with a definite worth.

Thanks for keeping me in the loop.

[AUsome Joy]

Freedom is the God-given and natural state of man, the government exists to protect man's freedom, and the greatest and most reliable freedom protector in all of human history is: us.
The role of the Federal Government is not to decide what children will wear to school. Clinton was interested in uniforms, while Bush is interested in freedom.

In the old days elite opinion held that Mr. Bush was a scripted trust-fund dullard whose rise was greased by luck and birth.
There is a difference in the elitist intelligence of Clinton and Hillary, the smartest woman in the world, and Bush. Bush is genuinely intelligent and has God-given wisdom. While the pundits were so keen on the "intelligence" of Gore, we could see the wisdom of Bush.

Thanks for the Pokey ping.

[lepton]

Mr. Bush's opposition at the moment appears to have been reduced to agreeing with the president on just about everything and then saying, "But let's make sure we don't run a deficit!" Mr. Bush is talking life and death, love and honor and they're running around talking like accountants.

Wrong-headed accountants at that - but such would distract from her point.

[TopDog2]

If I'm not there, add me too please...

[Amelia]

In the old days elite opinion held that Mr. Bush was a scripted trust-fund dullard whose rise was greased by luck and birth. Those were the days. Those of us who stood with Mr. Bush then were a small and hardy band of criticized contrarians. It was fun. We had secret handshakes and everything. Now everyone's in on the act.

I will admit to being one of those who held "the old...elite opinion". (I pinged Howlin, because she, more than anyone else, can vouch for that!) I guess now, I'm just "one of the crowd", but I surely DO like the man!

[Ole Okie]

Pokey, would you add me to both lists also?

Peggy Noonan is a treasure.

[Howlin]

I'll vouch for that; there were long periods of time when Amelia and I didn't discuss candidates, period.......LOL.

Now, you all know how persuasive I can be, but I couldn't budge her.

But he did it on his own.

[Alissa]

Peggy at her best!

[Amelia]

You, on the other hand, have been there since the "secret handshake" days! Are you gloating yet? :)