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 ...
I respect Peggy Noonan's opinion as she has far more experience in speech preparation than most people. She is deserves to be heard. Maybe George Bush ought to consider hiring Noonan as an advisor regarding his next outing?
She is even more than right. My family and I were extremely disappointed by the speach for the following reasons:
1. Was it a milksop to religious fundamentalism? If so that was awfully transparent.
2. What about the rest of us? What about legal reform, tax reform, etc? For those who don't get it, remember, even Christ said "render unto Caeser." We are talking about Caeser, here, i.e. the power of the state. That Bush, and other seek God's guidance is fine. But Bush can put God in man's heart at the point of a sword no more than Mohammed can.
3. Bush's speach was all empty pablum. All of the stuff about foreign policy - that is SO last term. We already took down the Taliban and Al Qaida. Bush needs to do something for US - more than just foreign policy.
4. Who is Bush's speech-writer. Said speech-person needs firing real bad - all of them.
Sometimes the conservative intellectuals are as blind and clueless as the liberals because they live in such an insulated world. This is one of those times. Maybe Peggy needs to do a trip through the RED STATES to understand that there is life outside the beltway and that morals and values played a large part in this last election as indicated by several polls post election.
Absolutely. Rhetoric appropriate to an inaugural speech would be overwrought if used in the upcoming State of the Union message.
North Korea has raised the bar so high that anything having to do with them runs the risk of nuclear warfare. We have plenty.
Maybe in an effort at truth and reconciliation, some of the red-staters need to do a tour of duty inside the Beltway. Not every problem of a modern democratic superpower can be solved by scriptural quotation.
More then a few here would benefit from reading it
What a condescending comment!...
If Peggy was over the top, this is under the bottom. Empty pablum? More like pearls before swine, respectfully.
"Not every problem of a modern democratic superpower can be solved by scriptural quotation."
Vanities of vanities!
Welcome to Free Republic.
In my defense I refer to the point made just above "If she thinks there's to much God now. Wait till she stands in judgment then she can file a complaint in person."
I rest my case.
I'd say Noonan was quite 'short of exemplary in her defense of conservatism' when she wrote that 'kindler, gentler America' phrase into Bush 41's inaugural speech.
That was a slam at Reagan-style conservatism. Not only was it undeserved by the late Ronaldus Magnus, but it helped perpetuate the Left's stereotyping of conservatism as "mean-spirited."
Hehehehh, Boy you are funny. If Bush was a rockets dancer and wanted to have an interpretive dance of the bill of rights at his inauguration he could. Bush makes no excuses that his strength comes from God, that pisses people off that do not have the confidence in who they are to state that. You think Bush doesn't know the hostility his faith causes?
"But Bush can put God in man's heart at the point of a sword no more than Mohammed can."
Sorry didn't see him sending his security people into the crowd to sign statement of faith or they would kill their children in front of them.
Please dont make such screwhead comments, it makes you look like a nut.
Indeed. A bit of the more "concrete" reality was brought home in The Daily Show -- a bit of Bush's rhetoric about spreading freedom was followed up by Jon Stewart deadpanning, "Offer not valid in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, [etc]".
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.
Put the world on notice they play on our terms, not theirs.
We surely aren't going to make Heaven on this Earth. But if we have the bad guys waking up in night sweats dreaming of themselves at the end of a rope and more millions dreaming of something better than what they have there will have less time and inclination for mischief.
Besides, this is a direct challenge to the ossified Muslim view of the world. In spite of all the flowery words, personal human "freedom" and "Liberty" are not concepts found in the Koran, just like they are not found in the Communist Manifesto.
The only way the Muslim culture of enslavement and expansion against the Infidel can be cracked is from within, by those with the vision for something better and brave enough to oppose the words of their own demented scripture. President Bush's speech was a clarion call to these "insiders" for a revolution. Whether that can be done with them still remaining within the precepts of Islam is doubtful. They will eventually be forced to choose between the permanent slavery of their religious dogma or liberty.
That's a "Reformation" sort of choice. They will have to leave the old behind. It's also a very "western" and "Christian" concept - both anathema to the entrenched Muslim World.
Radical stuff!
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