Posted on 01/21/2005 4:19:45 AM PST by Mikmur
PEGGY NOONAN
Way Too Much God Was the president's speech a case of "mission inebriation"?
The inaugural address itself was startling. It left me with a bad feeling, and reluctant dislike. Rhetorically, it veered from high-class boilerplate to strong and simple sentences, but it was not pedestrian. George W. Bush's second inaugural will no doubt prove historic because it carried a punch, asserting an agenda so sweeping that an observer quipped that by the end he would not have been surprised if the president had announced we were going to colonize Mars. A short and self-conscious preamble led quickly to the meat of the speech: the president's evolving thoughts on freedom in the world. Those thoughts seemed marked by deep moral seriousness and no moral modesty.
The president's speech seemed rather heavenish. It was a God-drenched speech. This president, who has been accused of giving too much attention to religious imagery and religious thought, has not let the criticism enter him. God was invoked relentlessly. "The Author of Liberty." "God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind . . . the longing of the soul."
And yet such promising moments were followed by this, the ending of the speech. "Renewed in our strength--tested, but not weary--we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." This is--how else to put it?--over the top. It is the kind of sentence that makes you wonder if this White House did not, in the preparation period, have a case of what I have called in the past "mission inebriation." A sense that there are few legitimate boundaries to the desires born in the goodness of their good hearts.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
One fears that he is trying to make up for the fact that the most fightening man in America is no longer running Justice.
Darned good advice for all!
fightening = frightening
however, thinking normally doesn't produce a result 180 degrees diff than the original impression. this doesn't make sense to me.
I think this speech reveals a speech writer who has studied well previous presidential speeches. There is nothing new in this speech. It is a restatement of the ideals we have always stood for.
Most people can identify up to 2500 people by name but only interact on a regular basis with 25 at most. The problem with being in NYC-DC axis all the time is that your companions eventually sway your reasoning and judgment. Further, always be suspicious of a believer criticizing someone else's faith or expression of it. Unless the testator has been barbaric in his or her expression good manners say "leave it alone."
No, I haven't called you a swine. I used a well known colloquialism to make a point. Shall I send pictures? If you think it was empty pablum, you clearly don't get it, won't get it, can't get it, and probably have little stomach for ideals.
She is right on the mark here. For those of us who are constitutional conservatives, this was an enormous miscalculation in my view.
You are intellectually lame. What on earth does an emphasis on domestic policy have to do with being a "constitutional conservative?" The President will outline "domestic policy" in the State of the Union address. What about this simple fact don't you understand???
I agree with ya, Mik. Plus, W covered the Mars angle some time ago. :P
She loves to go off on tangents. She should drop opinion and speech writing and go right into novels. She is a novelist. A storyteller. Her style might work there.
Peggy is not the first former speechwriter to misread this speech. Peter Robinson was taking his lumps from his good friend Hugh Hewitt yesterday for making the same mistake. President Bush was announcing a change in the foreign policy of the US, to the country, but most importantly, to the world. In a long overdue recovery from the Cold War, the US would change it's pragmatic foreign policy which allowed us to ally with dictators and tyrants, to ally with democratic movements and freedom within other nations.
It is ridiculous to think the President was talking about military action to force every nation to conform to our standards of freedom and democracy. He was quite clear that was not the case. I'm sure Natan Sharansky was quite happy with the President's speech. If you need help understanding, read Natan's book, "The Case for Democracy".
Very nice summary and very accurate, too, I think.
This was not a speech that was delivered in order to instantly rally a team for a game that's about to start in 3 minutes.
It was a speech that needs to have much more longevity. It needs to last over the long haul.
Perhaps he could give us some tax cuts or something.
Odd, I saw it as "freedom" agenda. Now GWB sees freedom as the "gift of God". I don't think anyone has to share that belief to believe in the power of freedom. And I don't see that belief as particularly threatening. But that is just me.
You are SO RIGHT. Thanks for reminding me. Also, she was the one writing whiny columns about buying gas masks and taping off a "safe room" after 9-11.
Agreed.
"I don't know what Peggy's problem is."
My guess is she has never experienced an outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
He wasn't calling for perfection either. She must have misread that into his speech too.
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