Posted on 01/20/2005 9:33:31 PM PST by RWR8189
Was the president's speech a case of "mission inebriation"?
It was an interesting Inauguration Day. Washington had warmed up, the swift storm of the previous day had passed, the sky was overcast but the air wasn't painful in a wind-chill way, and the capital was full of men in cowboy hats and women in long furs. In fact, the night of the inaugural balls became known this year as The Night of the Long Furs.
Laura Bush's beauty has grown more obvious; she was chic in shades of white, and smiled warmly. The Bush daughters looked exactly as they are, beautiful and young. A well-behaved city was on its best behavior, everyone from cops to doormen to journalists eager to help visitors in any way.
For me there was some unexpected merriness. In my hotel the night before the inauguration, all the guests were evacuated at 1:45 in the morning. There were fire alarms and flashing lights on each floor, and a public address system instructed us to take the stairs, not the elevators. Hundreds of people wound up outside in the slush, eventually gathering inside the lobby, waiting to find out what next.
The staff--kindly, clucking--tried to figure out if the fire existed and, if so, where it was. Hundreds of inaugural revelers wound up observing each other. Over there on the couch was Warren Buffet in bright blue pajamas and a white hotel robe. James Baker was in trench coat and throat scarf. I remembered my keys and eyeglasses but walked out without my shoes. After a while the "all clear" came,
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
It is very easy to understand the meaning of that sentence if your faith is strong. It means that no man or woman can do it alone. That we need each other to survive. As Ben Franklin stated, we must all stand together or we will all hang separately. In a global sense, it means - listen up France, Germany, and Spain! You may think you are free now and have liberty but your freedom and liberty depends on us as well as your neighbors. That's what it means, Charlie Brown!
It always irritates me that our own people don't think we are slaves to the tax man. The IRS is the slave boss and we are the slaves.
Way too much Peggy Noonan. She actually thinks she was responsible for Pres. Reagan's fantastic ability to communicate, thus taking credit for a God-given talent. She needs to live off her royalties and not trash those who have taken the reins after her. This betrays a smaller, meaner character than I thought she had. And besides, her affected voice drives me crazy.
Exactly...yesterday as soon as the speech was over she thought it was wonderful...but is she the one who pointed out that the speech didn't have enough modesty to suit the liberals? After someone said that, they all jumped on it. Mary/TX
You've missed the boat, Peggy. The train has left the station, but the timid and quivery still standing on the platform will be happy to listen to your orotund phrases. (Metaphors were on sale at Wal-mart this week.)
I don't recall your complaining when President Reagan's speeches expressed big themes and dramatic ambitions ... oh that's write, you wrote those, didn't you?
Or is the problem that you think the *ordinary* people of America, and the world, already have all the freedom you *special* people think we can handle? You don't want all those screamingly-average Wal-mart shoppers to get away from their "natural rulers," do you?
Get over it, sweetie. You're not that hot.
Shoot! "Right," not "write." More coffee ...
Peggy believes God was too much a part of the ceremonies? She believes this vision is too idealistic, we should be realists and accept limitations on freedom?
Sad. Sad the woman would descend to petty jealousy and that is exactly what I believe occured. her commentary will be welcomed by the elites, though not by the heart and soul of America that re-elected thia man to office. It will be G.W. words that are remembered with fondness, not this catty column. It will be his speechwriter acknowledged in the footnotes of history for a new Doctrine of Freedom.
LOL. That's all right. Someone up thread wrote "right" for "write," so you balanced each other out. :oD
You're right. It's not like Ms. Noonan has announced that she no longer supports the President. She is simply doing her job. Her job is to critique the speech. She is doing what a professor or editor would do. And now folks are critiquing(sp?) her. I'm sure she can handle it.
When I saw Ms. Noonan on FOXNews following the speech, she was reluctant to give her full opinion because she wanted to let it soak in. It was "breathtaking," according to several of the pundits who were speaking about it.
Personally, I only listened to the first ten minutes of it, then I looked at the clock to see how much longer it would be. It did not snag my attention. Then again, I had a three-year-old demanding that I help her put together a puzzle. I have not read the text of the speech as of yet. I think I'm afraid to because if I criticize the speech, then I will be an outcast or something.
I thought the whole ceremony was wonderful. I thought several of the songs were rather hokie but wonderfully delivered. I was very proud of Trent Lott who put together a fine inaugural ceremony for the President.
Noonan: “God was invoked relentlessly.” – Personally, and I am not a big organized religion guy, but I did not feel this “relentlessness” at all.
Noonan: “The speech did not deal with specifics--9/11, terrorism, particular alliances, Iraq. It was, instead, assertively abstract.” – “Assertively abstract” – Well, good.
Bush: “The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands." – Sounds good to me, and needed to be said.
Noonan: “Ending tyranny in the world? Well that's an ambition, and if you're going to have an ambition it might as well be a big one. But this declaration, which is not wrong by any means, seemed to me to land somewhere between dreamy and disturbing.” – Peggy may be disturbed. Ha.. She’s disturbed because her input may not have been requested for the speech.
Noonan: “Again, this is not heaven, it's earth.” – The President never said that it was heaven.
Bush: “we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." – Yes, this might have been said better. Maybe – “we are ready to reach for perhaps the greatest achievements in the history of freedom” would have been better.
Noonan:“One wonders if they shouldn't ease up, calm down, breathe deep, get more securely grounded. The most moving speeches summon us to the cause of what is actually possible. Perfection in the life of man on earth is not.” – Peggy has a lot of nerve. I’ve read her books carefully and much of her other writing. She has a lot of nerve. She has often had a gardenful of flowery, perfumey high-reaching vanities throughout her writings.
Calm down Peggy.
Lincoln, in 1865, refers to God or the Almighty 8 times -- in a speech only one-third as long.
Now there is a substantive observation.
Me too!
You don't understand Peggy. She is a elitist living off her association with Ronald Reagan. She looks down on most of us on this board. She mingles with her little literary circles on the upper West side of Manhattan and considers herself so privileged and "special." Reagan could and did write for and express himself. He had a core and he was a very godly man. Noonan is a hanger on.
Frum is pro-abortion--is Peggy, as well?
I've never been a big Noonan fan, but she's usaully not mean, just boring and flip-floppy. This was mean and arrogant.
No you're homophones ...
It's not just the speech she criticizes. She charges they were "defensive" about the choice of music.
Talk about an oddball charge. How about the President wanted honor Hatch and Ashcroft (two songs written or co-written by each respectively).
I find her annoyingly self-centered.
Her writing is formulaic. It always starts out with some "we" story (as if she and whatever little group of people are more special than you or I...remember...SHE was in the lobby with Warren Buffett) and then it drivels off into her constant assertions that SHE is far more sensitive, nuanced, whatever...than you or I will ever be.
Peggy Noon is tiresome, and has never accomplished anything in her entire life. Why she is a "pundit" is beyond me.
Are you series?
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