« Quote of the Day | Main | Afternoon Awesome »
January 9, 2009
Oh Pshaaaaww!
Peggy Noonan suddenly believes that presidential hero-worship is un-American:
The Founders, who were awed by the presidency and who made it a point, the early ones, to speak in their inaugural addresses of how unworthy they felt, would be astonished and confounded by the over-awe with which we view presidents now. We treat them as if they are the Grand Imperial Czar of the Peacock Throne, and we their 'umble servants. It's no good, and vaguely un-American. Right now patriotism requires more than the usual candor. It requires speaking truthfully and constructively to a president who is a man, and just a man. We hire them, we fire them, they come back for photo-ops. They're not magic.
BlueTexan at FDL takes down this crap on a stick in detail, citing quote after quote in which Noonan genuflects at the throne of Bush and Reagan.
But also, regarding Ms. Noonan, have you noticed that she's one of those pundits who writes exactly the way she speaks -- that slow, verbose Ativan meets Hot Toddy snootery? She's the Major Winchester from M*A*S*H of the insider pundit set. This of course makes her appear to be smart and insightful, but doesn't quite mask the layer of very serious group-think and 'ackery lingering just below the surface.
Filed under: Bush || Media || Peggy Noonan || Very Serious
 |  |  |  |  |
Posted By Bob Cesca | January 9, 2009 1:43 PM
Comments
yes, she makes every syllable so freaking belabored and has the smug "I shall im-pose on you a droplet of wis-dom" expression on her face, before saying something either really obvious or obviously bullshit.
Posted by: Erin at January 9, 2009 2:07 PM
Who is she kidding!! She is guilty of this herself. She deifies Reagan all the time. She is very annoying.
Posted by: midad at January 9, 2009 2:14 PM
Well, Reagan did single-handedly destroy global communism, bring down the Soviet Union, and make the Berlin Wall crumble with the trembling thunder of his booming fake-cowboy voice. So there's that...
Posted by: EL Mystico at January 9, 2009 4:04 PM
Her self-assurance compensates for her lack of self-awareness or in other words, she's a cloth-eared git.
Posted by: Lyle at January 9, 2009 4:37 PM
"Peggy Noonan." That name always makes me laugh when I say it out loud.
I suggest we add a word to the American political lexicon: to "Noonan" is to write insipid, worshipful prose of a political figure.
Posted by: Matt Osborne at January 9, 2009 6:40 PM
She is the one who earned St Ron the nickname "The Great Communicator", and she might be a bit annoyed that most of us weren't viewing Bush with over-awed anything. It wasn't that long ago that
those of us who were speaking truthfully against the policies of this administration were being told that we were the unpatriotic ones.
Most irritating, tho, is that she presumes to know what the Founders would say or do - kinda like those who know God's will....
Posted by: ceu at January 9, 2009 6:42 PM
W made a similar crack the other day when all the ex-Prezes got together -
"All of us who have served in this office understand that the office itself transcends the individual and we wish you all the very best, and so does the country," Bush said to his successor."
This from a fuck-up narcissist.
Asshole.
Posted by: Nanotyrannus at January 9, 2009 8:05 PM
