Miles To Go(Peggy Noonan)

Wall Street Journal ^ | 9/12/08 | Peggy Noonan

[DallasBiff]

Democrats, hit reset. Accept the fact that the race has changed utterly, that you're up against a ticket that has captured the public imagination. Now you must go out and recapture it.

Out of the shirtsleeves, into the suit. Stop prowling the stage with what looks like Phil Donahue's old mic. No more scattered, listless riffs; back to the podium and the prepared—and focused—speech. Campaign as a duo, Obama-Biden, together again. Obama alone looks like he's part of nothing.

You must aim your fire at the top of the ticket, John McCain, and not at this beautiful girl, Sarah Palin, about whom you can do nothing.

You can never kill her now. Forget it. She can hurt herself, but in terms of Democratic attacks she is bulletproof. You made her that—she wasn't that way when she walked in

[longtermmemmory]

noonan was MSNBC fawning over Gov. Kane (eyebrow man)

her comments in general are fawning over Obama. Noonan has fallen so far down into the gutter.

[novemberslady]

The Road Less Traveled

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth

Then took the other, as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference.

[petercooper]

Peggy- you’re a fraud and a loser. Join the ranks of A. Huffington now.

[back in NJ]

I also noticed her not referring to the Governor as Governor Palin...BUT what really got me is that right up front she refers to the Governor as a “beautiful girl”...That really infuriated me. I used to love Peggy Noonan, but she has really lost me over this election cycle...

[Loyal Buckeye]

Peggy has a certain weirdness about her.

[Roccus]

The money quote;

Forget what Mr. McCain and Mrs. Palin can do to Mr. Obama: If he embarrasses the media, they'll kill him.

Gov. Palin dismissed the media out of hand at the convention. This did not make them happy campers. So in retribution, the media came down on her with both feet. The Obama campaign saw this and thought it was open season, so they piled on as well. BIG mistake.....the media and Rats got hit with blowback and McCain/Palin got a larger and faster than expected bounce. Smarting from these two slaps in the face, they feel their relevancy has been called into question....their bias exposed for the masses to see. Even those who pay scant attention to politics are suddenly aware that the media that they depend on to give them the straight story.....isn't doing it's job.

Obama now represents the media's only chance for salvation, plus, he's a two-fer! If they start questioning Obama,I mean really questioning him, that will take care of the (alleged) bias. Then, when Obama folds like a $2 suitcase under their questioning, they can lay claim to exposing him and saving the nation from him......and that will take care of the relevancy.

Hey Sen. Obama, that red spot on your forehead may not be a skin blemish!

jmho

[Graymatter]

I am SO tempted to go hotmike on you, Peggy. But I’ll just say that you’re only half-exposed as a phony: the snobbish nouveau-lib half cooing encouragement to Obama. The other half remains hidden: you secretly detest the Obamas just as much as you envy the McCains.

[Roccus]

...isn’t doing it’s job. Should be.....isn’t doing its job.

[FreeAtlanta]

She does need to take a vacation and needs to take along all her brilliant old articles and books, and spend time re-reading them. It might help her to get back in touch with why we loved her.

[TexasNative2000]

The mainstream media may themselves come down on Mr. Obama. They like him, but if he doesn't come back and make this a race, he'll embarrass them. They just might be on the edge of getting angry, having been left exposed. Forget what Mr. McCain and Mrs. Palin can do to Mr. Obama: If he embarrasses the media, they'll kill him.

Stab and twist.

[what's up]

I remember when Peggy dissed President Bush for saying "God" in a speech.

Ugh. Peggy's been fruity for years. And her writing seems childish to me.

[Artemis Webb]

Screw you Peggy.

I trusted you ...now piss off!

[gridlock]

Peggy, Peggy, Peggy,...

You know we love you, and we know you are contractually obligated to file a column each week, but it would be better for you if you just went away for a while to let us cool off.

You can’t go insulting us in public like that and expect us to be all kissy-face a week or two later. Not gonna happen.

Maybe in a little while, if you stop annoying us in the meantime, but not right now.

[xsmommy]

you flatter yourself to think that others aren’t “getting” her article. her cautioning against over-confidence is spot on. her referring to Gov. Palin as a “beautiful” girl, not addressing her by her title, and her overheard hot mic comments show the condescension with which she refers to her. anything she says now will be read through the prism of what we know about how she really feels about Gov. Palin.

[Roccus]

It's about the almighty media (Peggy included) and their power.

100% spot on!!!

[Guenevere]

Peggy is irrelevant now....and she knows it...and it stings.

[flowerplough]

A hint of pro-Democrat desperation in Grampa Bush’s former speechwriter’s choppy list? Noonan’s advice: You Dems should punt and regroup, you Dems should hit the downlow and just wait for Gov. Lipstick’s handlers to overreach, you Dems should try to divide and conquer McCain-Palin... doesn’t she mean to write “we Dems”?

And as to the Obama campaign’s “experience in turning inevitable candidacies into evitable ones,” is she referring to the way O’s campaign’s close reading of caucus rules and loopholes, and MoveOn types, and MSNBC carried the formerly-anti-war Obama into contention, or is she sarcastically piling onto Obama’s reputed inability to “close the deal”? Doubt that any major-party nominee has ever lost so many primaries after having clinched the nomination. Sen. Obama can be “talented, resourceful and compelling,” especially when he’s acting out prepared lines read from a teleprompter, but lately he’s been showing us just how much serious campaigning is “above his pay grade.”

[SBprone]

I read the whole column before seeing it here on FR, and I wouldn’t be surprised if many other Freepers had as well.

Here’s the paragraph that ticked me off:

“More important, obviously, the race shouldn’t be over. The nation deserves—and requires—a real debate, a real and spirited presenting of fact and argument. It won’t get that if the election is over. The candidates must argue this thing out or it means nothing. And the day after the election, for the winner in this tempestuous nation, it better mean something, or he won’t be able to govern.”

This reads like a threat. Fight fair John McCain or you won’t be able to govern. Fight fair or we’ll hold our breath.

What in the hell is she talking about? Will Democrats walk out of the House and the Senate and boycott the institutions of government. Will municipal employees and Washington bureaucrats go on a sick-out for the next four years?

Isn’t it possible that political life will go on, pretty much as before?

Peggy, I’ve got a great big bitch-slap here that I’m just dying to give you.

[donnab]

Peggy Peggy
“and not at this beautiful girl, Sarah Palin,”
That's the best you can do? Not articulate woman? Would you call Obama a handsome boy? I doubt it ..imagine the backlash you would get. A beautiful girl?
Geesh Peggy...You are now irrelevant!

[Snake65]

I agree with much of what she said. But this: Forget what Mr. McCain and Mrs. Palin can do to Mr. Obama: If he embarrasses the media, they'll kill him.

Laughable. The media will photoshop this guy into office if they have to.