Peggy Noonan: Way Too Much God

Wall Street Journal ^ | January 21, 2005 | Peggy Noonan

[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,

[Darkwolf377]

Right on. The songs were awful. I would have prefered more traditional stuff--an inauguration is one of the few occassions when we get to hear them. As a songwriter Orin Hatch makes a great wimpy committee chair.

[Red Sea Swimmer]

God likes many forms of music...

The Jewish prophecies state that in the Messianic Era new music forms that had never existed before would exist. Techno is a new music form. I have a theory that when they send out a space ship and discover the centre of the universe where it all began, they will hear a sound and the sound will be techno.

You may gather I enjoy Techno, although I like many forms of music.

[Seaplaner]

Grating? I wonder what irritated her. Maybe it was the "Not written here" issue.

I sometimes like Noonan's work, but she tends to lecture, to be too flowery, and to vamp long after she reaches a rational conclusion. Oh, and I find these to be grating.

[Echo Talon]

I care. She's a daughter of the Reagan Revolution, very wise and talented. She may be wrong on this one, but marginalizing her for an unpopular opinion is what Democrats do to the likes of Zell Miller.

I don't care for her, people change... obviously she has. I have never voted for her and would never vote for her, so why should I care what she thinks?

[Echo Talon]

Right on. The songs were awful.

I actually liked the songs...

[jennyjenny]

You always disagree with me , jenny. If I say BLACK, you say WHITE. So, what else is new

I do? Sheesh, I hadn't noticed. I very seldom disagree with anyone on here since my short membership. Your screen name certainly doesn't ring any bells with me. I'll have to go back an check my posts.

[Elkiejg]

My reply to her column:

What gives Peggy - when I saw you on FoxNews immediately after the speech, you liked it - even though you said you'd have to think about it. The rest of the FoxNews panel thought the speech was GREAT - even Bill Kristol, the enternal McCain pimp. Don't know what you heard, but AMERICANS loved the speech today. Perhaps you have a little sour grapes for not being on the speech writing team????

Encourage everyone to go to the bottom of the article and submit your response. Mz Peggy sounds like she's been sucking on a lemon.

[vaudine]

"Liberty does not mean independence from one another"--sounds to me like John Donne's "For Whom the Bell Tolls" when he said we are all a part of the main and when one little piece is lost the bell tolls for all of us instead of the one who is being buried.(paraphrase)

vaudine

[John Lenin]

Techo has been around since the 70's. Ever hear of Hawkwind ?

[AnnaZ]

"Liberty for all does not mean independence from one another."

Oh, yeah, I remember being a little bugged by that one. One should be able to be an island, if one so chooses (I don't recommend it, however...). That and the Koran ref bugged me, but beyond them, there was much I loved about the address. And the fact that it was W up there, and not...

 

;^)

[John Lenin]

Techno

[Darkwolf377]

I don't know about God's taste but I own over 1300 CDs--mine's pretty diverse. On this occassion I would have enjoyed some traditional stuff instead of that garbage Hatch wrote--cliched gunk. I'd rather hear something written a century ago that I've heard a thousand times than the weak retreads they write now.

I'm listening to Sterolab right now...;)

[Right_in_Virginia]

A little speechwriter envy, perhaps?

This is the most probable explanation...considering she greatly praised the speech right after it was given.

[Darkwolf377]

I liked the woman who sang that one song but would have prefered her taking on something more interesting.

[Howlin]

Sometimes I think she thinks we way more interested in her every thought than we are.

[LibertarianInExile]

Aw, crap, now you've done it. We're supposed to be like this when it comes to anything and everything Bush does, doncha know?

[leftofright]

The Pegster should read the text.

Bush twice refers directly to God. The rest, she's reading between the lines.

Lincoln, in 1865, refers to God or the Almighty 8 times -- in a speech only one-third as long.

Methinks she's jealous of having to share a stage w/ Mark Gerson as great wordsmith of our times.

[Red Sea Swimmer]

Now, you have really stoked the fires of electronica history.

Did you ever watch the sensational English show "The Young Ones" ?

On one of the shows, Neil was going on about an appearance of Hawkwind down at the local pub. The episode was a riot.

[Fenris6]

"I have never voted for her and would never vote for her, so why should I care what she thinks?"

She influences millions. And despite what the cynics here say, Peggy "gets it". Go to her archive section and read her stuff. So she didn't like the lack of nuance in Bush's speech. Big deal. You want to toss her off the island b.c of it?

[Howlin]

Well, you just keep thinking I want rap, show tunes, or heavy metal at the Inauguration.