http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203413304577086824255350642.html?KEYWORDS=peggy+noonan
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203833104577072812757977898.html?KEYWORDS=peggy+noonan
Excerpt:
“He often seems to be playing a part in a historical novel he’s dictating in his mind—Newt the underdog, Newt the visionary. He has a compulsion to be interesting, which accounts for some of his overheated language—things are always decayed, corrupt, sick, catastrophically tragic.
He also often sounds like a cable TV political analyst, which he’s been for the past decade. He appraises his own candidacy instead of just being the candidate. The race used to be between “Mitt and Not Mitt,” but now it is between “Newt and Not Newt,” he says. He is “the only one who can win.” This week in South Carolina: “I’m the one candidate who can bring together national-security conservatives and economic conservatives and social conservatives.”
Candidates should let other people say that; serious candidates should let voters say it to exit pollsters. He shouldn’t be making the grubby bottom-line calculations, he should be making an elegant case for his leadership.”