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I am going to comment before reading the replies of others and I may be a minority voice on this article. That's ok with me. Peggy Noonan doesn't get it any more than many of the talking heads do - or, she is so worried that President Bush will outshine President Reagan that she is refusing to face the reality of what IS. By the way, she has been criticized in the past and to this day for not wanting anything or anyone to ever upstage her hero, President Reagan. That is a worthy goal since he is a remarkable man and was a wonderful president.

On the other hand, it may cloud her views. She has been nit-picking President Bush for awhile now. Is she afraid of something? She has taken to using psycho-babble to analyze what he thinks, why he thinks it and why he is who he is. I have been offended at some of her comments recently.

So now, she thinks he must reveal his smoking guns even if it means the lives of sources. She thinks he needs to lay all the facts on the table NOW...even if we are not militarily ready...even if the timing is not right. This is foolish. And revealing the conversation her friend had with the President was wrong.

President Bush, as she says, knows things the rest of us don't know. Yet instead of trusting him on this, she tells him what he MUST do. She wonders aloud if this is just personal with him since Saddam tried to kill his father (who just happened to be a former president of the United States). She sounds no different than the liberal talking heads and senators that say the President has made no case.

This President will do what is right when the time is right. It will not be decided on the daily polls or the opinions of France or Germany, Paul Begala, bill and hillary clinton, or tom daschle. Period.

There may be an element of hero worship and trying to protect Reagan. And you are right, Noonan does go to great legnths to further Reagan's legacy.

But remember, even this White House uses polls and other barometers to gauge what the public thinks and how to "frame the debate". I've even had this conversation with Rush......since he so much decried Slick on his use of polling. Sure, it's not so blatant and obvioius, but it exists. Even El Rushbo complains about it from time to time.

... he has been having some trouble sleeping, and that when he awakes in the morning the first thing he often thinks is: I wonder if this is the day Saddam will do it.

"Do what exactly?" I asked my friend. He told me he understood the president to be saying that he wonders if this will be the day Saddam launches a terror attack here, on American soil.

This segment jumped out at me. Why would this person reveal a conversation filled with such frightful implications to Peggy? A true and trusted confidant of the President wouldn't ever reveal something of this magnitude. And, I don't think GWB is so careless with his remarks in front of those not in the immediate loop.

I object to Peggy so callously dismissing a "source or operation". Those sources are precious Americans whose lives are on the line. Their blood is just as red and dear as Peggy's. What they do could end up saving many thousands of lives. We should compromise them so that a relative few whining libs will come to agree with the President? No. They are never going to agree with President Bush no matter what he says or does. Bush is the bad guy, America is the imperial Great Satan and nothing is going to change their minds.

Blame America first - it's hip, it's cool, it plays well to the elite. My bottom line is, do I trust this President? Yes, I do. The whining Blame America Firsters appear to trust Saddam more than our own President.

I tend to agree with Peggy on this piece. I understand what you are saying, and it may be true that she is overprotective of the Reagan legacy. But at the same time, one of Reagan's great strengths was in communicating to the public (hence his nickname of "The Great Communicator"), and Peggy was a part of that, so when she speaks of what the public needs to hear, I tend to give her the benefit of the doubt. Plus, what she says here simply makes sense to me. His speech to the UN was fantastic because it was logical and passionate and clearly spelled things out with facts that could not be simply dismissed. His SOTU speech would do well to follow that template.

I SO totally agree with everything you said! If Peggy Noonan is such a big supporter of President Bush, it has been really hard to tell lately!