Peggy Noonan Calls Sarah Palin A 'Nincompoop'

Joshua Pundit ^

[TChad]

All these "Noonan sucks" posts, with not even one attempt to determine whether or not her criticism of Palin was justified.

It was not justified. Here is video of Palin making her comments:

http://texas4palin.blogspot.com/2010/10/gov-palin-wasnt-ronald-reagan-actor.html

Here is the transcript of that interview:

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/fox-news-sunday/transcript/john-brennan-mail-bomb-plot-sarah-palin-and-chris-van-hollen-preview-elections?page=4

Palin was responding to statements by Karl Rove in the Daily Telegraph:

“With all due candour, appearing on your own reality show on the Discovery Channel, I am not certain how that fits in the American calculus of 'that helps me see you in the Oval Office’,” Mr Rove told The Daily Telegraph in an interview.

...

“There are high standards that the American people have for it [the presidency] and they require a certain level of gravitas, and they want to look at the candidate and say 'that candidate is doing things that gives me confidence that they are up to the most demanding job in the world’.”

Palin said this in the Fox interview:

PALIN: You know, I agree with that, that those standards have to be high for someone who would ever want to run for president, like, umm, wasn't Ronald Reagan an actor? Wasn't he in Bedtime for Bonzo, Bozo?

So that Ronald Reagan was an actor.

Now, look it -- I'm not in a reality show. I have eight episodes documenting Alaska's resources, what it is that we can contribute to the rest of the U.S. to economically and physically secure our union. And my family comes along on the ride because I am family. Family is -- and my family comes along on the ride to document these eight episodes for The Learning Channel and Discovery Channel.

Here is Peggy Noonan's version of what Sarah said:

Conservatives talked a lot about Ronald Reagan this year, but they have to take him more to heart, because his example here is a guide. All this seemed lost last week on Sarah Palin, who called him, on Fox, "an actor." She was defending her form of political celebrity—reality show, "Dancing With the Stars," etc. This is how she did it: "Wasn't Ronald Reagan an actor? Wasn't he in 'Bedtime for Bonzo,' Bozo, something? Ronald Reagan was an actor."

Excuse me, but this was ignorant even for Mrs. Palin. Reagan people quietly flipped their lids...

In other words, Palin said that while some of Ronald Reagan's films may have been shallow and frivolous, those films did not define the depth of his character, his "gravitas." She therefore asked to be judged by more than just her appearances on "Sarah Palin's Alaska."

Sounds reasonable to me. Yet in Noonan's snippet, Palin is made to appear to have little idea who Ronald Reagan was. Perhaps he was an actor who appeared in some old movie, Palin is not sure.

This is attempted character assassination with out-of-context quotes. And to think that Noonan wrote Reagan's Challenger disaster speech.

[Psalm 144]

Must everything be serious? Why rip on Sarah this way?

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The prune’s hatred for the plum.