No, she doesn’t admit that she got turned down. It’s just an obvious assumption and the fact that she did an about face on Bush as soon as the election was over, just reinforces the assumed connection.
The snotty tone of her criticisms were also indicative of a personal antagonism. The remarks were small at first, but then after one speech that all the Republicans loved, Noonan started picking the speech apart, saying that there was way too much God in the speech. Since when was there ever too much God in a speech for Ms. Noonan? It was as if she was telling the left how to criticize Bush. It seemed almost disingenuous. It has been all down hill since then.
But that has little to do with the fact that I hate Peggy Noonan’s writing style. She bores me to death with her supercilious pretensions and overly wordy descriptions. I don’t want to hear about the elite dinner parties that she attends, the erudite guests and the beautiful floral arrangements. Ms. Noonan’s flowery style would be better suited to the garden club news letter, than the WSJ.
Any connection between Noonan’s criticism of Bush and her personal situation are assumptions only. We ought not to presume to make denigrating comments about a person’s character unless we know for sure. and with Noonan we don’t.
I am a Republican and was bothered by Bush’s Inaugural Address in 2005. In fact I was working for a Republican Congressman at the time. My criticism of the speech had nothing to do with references to God. It had to do with assigning the United States a goal (the end of tyranny on earth) which is properly left to a spiritual process (the discipling of the nations) and not a political process (the democratization of the nations.) Democracy comes most easily from a strong Christian foundation. Democracy will not save the world.
I certainly hope democracy comes in Iraq, and I do think we should encourage it all over the world where we can, and where it is in our interest to do so. But I would not have set our grand strategy in foreign policy as the end of tyranny on earth. Democracy will not bring this about; democracy needs a foundation, and in the end it is God’s to bring.