Peggy Noonan and the Two-Headed Bowling Ball Child

[Demeter]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marty-kaplan/peggy-noonan-and-the-two_b_122344.html


The morning after Obama's acceptance speech, Peggy Noonan told the Morning Joe crowd on MSNBC that everything she'd predicted about the speech and the event in her Wall Street Journal column turned out to be true. It sucked, Peggy said. In a few months, no one would remember anything he said. The Parthenon set was ridiculous. The rhetoric never achieved any height. It was full of tired old cliches. It disappointed the crowd, who'd waited in the sun for hours for uplift. There was no humor, no wit, no soaring. It was the old, pre-Bill Clinton liberalism. And anyone who disagreed with her -- like the MSNBC talking head who called the night "a symphony" -- was guilty of "suckupitis."

When Scarborough pointed out that Pat Buchanan, of all people, had praised the speech, and called it "manly," Peggy replied, Well, the best thing I could say about it is that it "wasn't sissy."
I'm paraphrasing here, writing while she's still on the air, but this is the gist: At least the speech wasn't all about all those miserable unemployed people that Democrats always talk about. It wasn't full of whining about all those unhappy sick people they only seem to see. It wasn't about a woman who had a two-headed child who was used as a bowling ball.

More like this, Peggy. Please.

I hope everyone who watched that speech has a chance to hear her say that. For the right-wing commentariat, it was a Katrina moment. It was a benchmark for how out of it and, well, disgusting, that crowd is. It established a baseline for magisterial condescension, for blindness, for night-is-day, for the gulf between Republican dead-enders and the rest of the country. Even though she's dared criticize George W. Bush, presumably to fashion a life preserver for her credibility, Peggy was more than willing to tell the speech's morning-after audience that they should believe her, and not their lying eyes.

[TwilightGardener]

1. And yet, the Republicans are exploiting a Down Syndrome baby

as a political prop. Let's see Peggy go after that.

[dkf]

2. Condescending indeed.

Exactly the word that popped into my mind when I heard her. Now THAT is the epitome of ELITIST.

[Enrique]

3. shows how much she knows about bowling

no real bowler would do that.

[grannie4peace]

4. i saw her

i had to do a double-take. so this was the bitch i'd been reading about on du. i couldn't keep watching her.....it amazes me the people crawl out of the woodwork :popcorn: :popcorn: :puke: :puke: :patriot: :patriot: :patriot:

[Stellabella]

5. Well, she is right on one point.

Repukes don't see the poor, struggling, sick, and hungry because they don't want to see them. Out of sight, out of mind, you know.

What a condescending bitch. Piggy really hit a new low with this one.

[MS Liberal]

6. PN is right!!

Sometimes democrats making speeches do overdo examples of people in misery. Hillary doesn't but everyone else does. Of course the only reason I feel Hillary doesn't is because she is my favorite democrat. Its all in the ears of the listener. If you do not like the person speaking all the examples get on your nerves. When I used to listen to Resident Bush, I could not stand his examples. Let's be honest, politicans need to give the examples a rest.

[agincourt]

7. Noonan,

was the GOPig speechwriter who wished she could suck Ronald Reagen's toe, for real. She's just another partisan hack who gets a lot more respect then she deserves.

[torbird]

8. Delightful!

Noonan has totally lost it, whatever "it" she ever had. I see her crabbing in the WSJ every week and just chuckle -- what a harmless old fool she is, pleading with other conservatives to "give McCain a chance" and with his handlers to "unleash the real John McCain." She wanted them to let him be "funny" because he supposedly has a biting wit and a winning knack for repartee. Riiiiiight. By all means, give Peggy what she wants. I envision the shocked silence that descends over the Republican convention as unvarnished McCain spews his idiocy at the delegates, and the only sound from the crowd is Peggy Noonan sobbing, clapping, and gasping at her hero's utter brilliance. Until, that is, he barks at her to "shut up, you cunt!"