Posted on 06/13/2004 9:04:38 PM PDT by Pokey78
What was the meaning of the past remarkable nine days? You cannot stop the American people from feeling what they feel and showing it. From the crowds at Simi Valley to the hordes at the Capitol to the men and women who stopped and got out of their cars on Highway 101 to salute as Reagan came home--that was America talking to America about who America is.
It was a magnificent teaching moment for the whole country but most of all for the young, who barely remembered Ronald Reagan or didn't remember him at all. This week they heard who he was. The old ones spoke, on all the networks and in all the newspapers, and by the end of the week it was clear that Ronald Reagan had suddenly entered the Lincoln pantheon. By Friday it was no longer a question, as it had been for years, whether he was one of our top 10 presidents. It was a question only whether he was in the very top five or six--up there with Lincoln and Washington. An agreement had been reached: the 20th century came down to FDR and RWR.
What is important now is that we continue to speak of the meaning of his leadership. Not bang away about what a great guy he was--there are a lot of great guys--but what huge things he did, not because he had an "ideology" but because he had a philosophy, a specific one that had specific meaning. He was the great 20th-century conservative of America. He applied his philosophy to the realities of the world he lived in. In doing so he changed those realities, and for the better. This is what we must pass on.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
I didn't read it as trying to bring attention to herself so much as to show how this man thought he was so 'close' to her, that he could feel free to be so intimate with her. I thought it was another way for her to show just how full of himself she still thinks he is.
I also considered the article to be not only a tribute to Ronald Reagan, but a marker for where we are today in relation to the policies and ideas he espoused.
Noonan describes "the hack" as having a "greasy political style." For my money, that describes Rohrabacher to a "t." He is all politician, and oozes the insincere charm of the species.
I've got the right not to like it.
The fact that he appears to be beholden to the radical muslims would really provide Peggy's motivation to try to detour any DR attempt to use Reagan's death to promote himself in a way that he would appear to be boosted by his association with Reagan. She would want to counter that anti-Isreal, anti-American policy direction.
The quote in 164 is from my post in 158.
There is a school of thought that Ronald Reagan managed to look good only because he had clever writers putting words into his mouth. (Perhaps the leading exponent is my former colleague Peggy Noonan, who while a Reagan speechwriter appeared in a magazine article under a caption that said just that: "The woman who puts the words in the president's mouth.")
Notice he blames Noonan for what a headline writer wrote, but still manages to call her a "perhaps...a proponent" of the view that speechwriters made Reagan. Of course it's nonsense to suggest that Noonan took credit for Reagan. She has done nothing but worship and lionize the man for years.
A sleezy tactic like that definitely makes Robinson a candidate to be among the former colleagues Noonan slams in her column, but for my money Rohrabacher still has the inside track on being "the hack."
You've just described every actor, dancer, singer, artist, etc. who comes to NY trying to get their big break.
Piquant! I gotta remember this line. I bet Peggy really got a load off her chest with this one. And HE KNOWS WHO HE IS!
Washington socialites and very dear friends of the Reagans.
Nice post....I agree.
I do not think it is Rohrbacher. He became a congressman--not the definition of "Hack" or one who would be the model for such.
One can just feel the waves of frustration and anger from you that enemies will be fought.
They will.
I kind of like this one, too.
You may be right, the larger message may be a reminder and warning about those beyond the speechwriters, warning about 'Pragmatists' like David Gergen and the Buchanan-types. Both said some extremely infuriating things last week while trying to spin Reagan's death and demean President Bush.
No it's not. Noonan broke a traditional rule that speechwriters don't step forward and announce themselves to the world. She started her campaign of self-promotion in that magazine article that Robinson refers to. Robinson is expressing some of the widespread irritation at her "me me me" approach to supposedly writing about Reagan. (Her self-obsessed writing is an elevated variant of the gonzo journalism pioneered by Hunter Thompson - an egocentric journalism that's focused more on the writer than on his -- or her -- subjects).
But who is the Hack? cyncooper's doubts about Rohrabacher may or may not be compelling. If not him then who? I proposed Ken Khachigian but I hardly know him. Rohrabacher is more widely known, and his pro Muslim anti Isreal positions and various posters statements that he would fit the greasy politician label argue for him.
Does anyone know anymore about this Ken Khachigian ??? Perhaps we could rule him in or out.
"Are we a government that has a country, or a country that has a government? We are the latter; hold it high. Can dictators who run a country the size of a continent in the name of a life-killing ideology, can they push freedom around? They cannot. Say it, hold it high. Is there a natural thing within man that tells him God is real and good, real as a rock, good as clean water--is that thing, that knowledge, natural to man? Yes it is. Hold it high. Should we as a people try to rid ourselves of the natural expressions of this natural knowledge? No. We must keep that and guard it and love it. We must hold it high."
Wham! Pow! To the moon, chamberlainbuff!
If you're frustrated and angry, take a pill or see a shrink -- please don't project it onto me. Have a nice day!
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