http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/noonan/ en-us Mon, 4 May 2009 14:56:16 GMT Focus Forum 15 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2243799/posts Like Specter who complained he was "ostracized" for voting for President Obama's disgraceful $787 billion stimulus package -the biggest spending bill in the history of the Republic- Noonan treats his vote for the measure as just another vote. It's not. It was, as conservatives saw it, the Mother of All Votes, and it capped a long career of giving the finger to conservatives. That single vote - which among other things erased the landmark Clinton welfare reforms, helped lay the foundation for socialized medicine and expand Leviathan's reach- gave the nation's left a forward momentum that it hasn't had since... American Spectator Magazine http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2243799/posts#comment Mon, 4 May 2009 14:56:16 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2243624/posts We didn't need another reason to avoid reading the slippery Peggy Noonan, but she gave us one anyway. Still in awe of the Dear Leader whose news conference Wednesday night was in her words "a bit of a masterpiece," in her Friday Wall Street Journal column Noonan shows that she has become a captive of liberal conventional wisdom on yet another issue. Noonan implies that the Republican Party is too conservative and as such it forced liberal Sen. Arlen Specter to defect to the Democrats. Noonan complained that the people inside the party "can't always be kicking people out of... American Spectator http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2243624/posts#comment Mon, 4 May 2009 07:48:25 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2242851/posts Out of all the conservative betrayals in the last election, none broke my heart more than Peggy Noonan's. I've loved her writing for years. I grew up hearing the wonderful speeches she wrote for Reagan. Her political memoir, "What I Saw At The Revolution," is still my favorite of its kind. I agree with a lot of what she says in her latest article, but I still wonder why she feels so dismissive of Joe-Six Packs and Hockey Moms. I don't think you can grow a party by dissing ordinary people the way she did during the last election. Conservatives4Palin http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2242851/posts#comment Sat, 2 May 2009 19:56:54 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2225471/posts If the Wall Street Journal keeps to its usual schedule, the next column from Peggy Noonan will be published on Good Friday. I hope she takes advantage of that timing to offer one of the meditations on faith that she still writes better than almost everyone else, rather than another confused essay about President Obama. When her subject is Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, or grace encountered on the streets of Manhattan or Washington, D.C., Noonan shines. But Barack Obama frustrates her so much that even her occasional jabs at his opponents are poorly aimed. Last October, Noonan carelessly... American Spectator http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2225471/posts#comment Thu, 9 Apr 2009 10:38:34 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2208637/posts It is six months since Lehman fell and the crash (or the great recession, or the collapse—it's time it got its name) began. An aspect of the story given less attention than it is due, perhaps because it doesn't lend itself to statistics, is the psychic woe beneath the economic blow. ********* It is six months since Lehman fell and the crash (or the great recession, or the collapse—it's time it got its name) began. An aspect of the story given less attention than it is due, perhaps because it doesn't lend itself to statistics, is the psychic woe beneath... Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2208637/posts#comment Tue, 17 Mar 2009 22:57:35 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2206073/posts It is six months since Lehman fell and the crash (or the great recession, or the collapse—it's time it got its name) began. An aspect of the story given less attention than it is due, perhaps because it doesn't lend itself to statistics, is the psychic woe beneath the economic blow. There are two parts to this. One is that we have arrived at the first fatigue. The heart-pumping drama of last September is gone, replaced by the drip-drip-drip of pink slips, foreclosures and closed stores. We are tired. It doesn't feel like 1929, but 1930. People are in a... Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2206073/posts#comment Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:13:32 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2200825/posts A plane is in distress, it's lost one engine and now two and it's going down, and people on the ground hear the sound, look up, say, "That's going awful low," and whip out their cellphones. You could see the pictures they took later on the news. It sounds like Chesley Sullenburger and US Airways Flight 1549, but that was five weeks later. This was the military jet that went down in San Diego; this was the story that ended badly. Then this week it took a turn. (snip)The White House this week was consumed by extreme interest in a... The Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2200825/posts#comment Fri, 6 Mar 2009 18:20:27 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2195804/posts A mysterious thing happened in that speech Tuesday night. By the end of it Barack Obama had become president. Every president has a moment when suddenly he becomes what he meant to be, or knows what he is, and those moments aren't always public. Bill Safire thought he saw it with Richard Nixon one day in the new president's private study. Nixon always put a hand towel on the hassock where he put his feet, to protect the fabric, but this time he didn't use the towel, he just put up his feet. As if it were his hassock. And... Wall Street Journal Online http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2195804/posts#comment Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:07:40 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2181245/posts All week the word I kept thinking of was "braced." America is braced, like people who are going fast and see a crash ahead. They know huge and historic challenges are here. They're not confident they can or will be met. Our most productive citizens are our most sophisticated, and our most sophisticated have the least faith in the ability of our institutions to face the future and get us through whole. They have the least faith because they work in them. Tuesday I talked to people who support a Catholic college. I said a great stress is here and... The Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2181245/posts#comment Mon, 9 Feb 2009 01:22:46 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2164464/posts Conservatives sworn to dinner secrecy By: Jonathan Martin January 14, 2009 12:40 PM EST Call it a charm offensive or a high-level “Listening Tour,” but Barack Obama is already signaling that he intends to break with the current president in one obvious way: hearing from his critics. Obama Tuesday night trekked to the Chevy Chase, Md., home of conservative columnist George F. Will to talk politics and get to know some of his fiercest intellectual adversaries: Charles Krauthammer, William Kristol, Larry Kudlow, David Brooks, Rich Lowry, Peggy Noonan, Michael Barone, and Paul Gigot. The two-and-half-hour dinner, which came at Will’s... The Politico http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2164464/posts#comment Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:47:56 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2144741/posts http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20081207/peggy-noonan-lesley-stahl-and-friends-raise-more-money-wThe purse strings haven’t completely closed for start-ups looking to raise money–even niche Web sites that hope to stay afloat by selling advertising. Wowowow.com, a site launched earlier this year, which targets women over 40, has raised a $1.5 million round led by Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group and the Rhime Group. No word on valuation, but I’d guesstimate Wowowow.com’s investors peg its value in the high 9-figure range. The company has now raised $3.1 million in less than a year. The five founders–former publisher Joni Evans, “60 Minutes” reporter Lesley Stahl; New York Post gossip columnist Liz Smith; ad exec... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2144741/posts#comment Mon, 8 Dec 2008 04:19:37 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2130493/posts Understanding Peggy Noonan I read the other day that Peggy Noonan voted for John McCain. What's news is that that is news. You would think that we could assume a leading conservative writer didn't vote for Barack Obama, but Peggy Noonan has given us reason to wonder. After Peggy declared that “Palin's Failin'”, the notion was taken up far and wide that she wandered from the conservative fold. “Peggy, we hardly knew ye” has become a refrain among on-line conservatives. But her wanderings didn't begin with that op-ed. I have read all of Peggy Noonan's books and followed her column... http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2130493/posts#comment Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:31:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2127644/posts You're lucky to live through big history. And you're living through it. The explosion of joy in large pockets of the country Tuesday night was beautiful to see, and moving. For me, at the end of the evening, looking at live shots of the throngs in Chicago's Grant Park, I flashed back to 1960 and how it felt, as a child, to see that the grown-ups had elected a Catholic president. I can't say we stood taller—we were Irish, we already stood tall—but yes, there was a wave of feeling: "What a country," "What a development!" The other day, when... WSJ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2127644/posts#comment Fri, 7 Nov 2008 05:57:00 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2126385/posts Holy Shiite! I flipped on Oprah just for a moment to gawk at the freak show. Peggy Noonan was waxing poetic about last night's historic moment. She was giddy as she described hearing the honking horns in NYC and seeing the young people in Grant Park, and the way in which it reminded her of the glorious day that JFK was elected. I thought she was going to throw her head back and let loose with a Meg Ryan style orgasm a la When Harry Met Sally. My hand was burning from touching the power button as I backed away... vanity http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2126385/posts#comment Wed, 5 Nov 2008 22:20:22 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2123666/posts Lopez: Sarah Palin is a mom with spunk and executive experience. Does she not demonstrate some patriotic grace? Noonan: Well Kathryn, we have disagreed on the meaning and implications of Mr. McCain’s choice of Mrs. Palin. Here are some cool words from a cool head, George Will, who saw early on what a number of us came to see, and who said better what I would try to say later. “The man who would be the oldest to embark on a first presidential term has chosen as his possible successor a person of negligible experience. Any cook can run the... NRO http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2123666/posts#comment Mon, 3 Nov 2008 17:26:19 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2117460/posts For a number of weeks now, conservative Beltway insiders Kathleen Parker and Peggy Noonan, among others, have narrowed their sights not on the Democratic candidate for president, but the Republican candidate’s running mate. Sarah Palin has brought out something in them that rivals the ‘80s sitcom Full House when it comes to the shudder factor. Why beautiful, accomplished women like Parker and Noonan would join the MSM pile-on of the beautiful, accomplished woman from Alaska is, on its face, confusing. But for anyone who knows anything about how DC works, maybe it’s not so confusing after all.... Pajamas Media http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2117460/posts#comment Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:08:49 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2114599/posts As if the mainstream media's dumpster-diving campaign against Palin isn't galling enough, the conservative elite's casually dismissive attitude toward the brightest GOP star from Alaska may be even worse. Washington insiders' common mantra is "readiness." Colin Powell dismissed Palin as not "ready to be president." Kenneth Adelman, forgetting the governor is already above his pay grade, patronizingly declared her "not close to being acceptable in high office." Their disdain is rivaled by some East Coast conservative pundits. New York Times columnist David Brooks declared Palin "a cancer," and Washington Post writer Kathleen Parker called her "clearly out of her league."... Investors Business Daily http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2114599/posts#comment Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:49:51 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2114332/posts Others have noted the vitriolic attacks by Peggy Noonan and Kathleen Parker on Sarah Palin. More interesting is the use of the sentiments or statements of others who precisely mirror the opinions Noonan and Parker hold against, and write about, Sarah Palin. Noonan and Parker conveniently find these journalistic equivalents of confidential informants or jailhouse snitches whenever they want to characterize Gov. Palin as, at best, ignorant. Noonan wrote: “[¶5] There has never been a second’s debate among liberals, to use an old-fashioned word that may yet return to vogue, over Mrs. Palin: She was a dope and unqualified from... The Wall Street Journal; The Washington Post; The New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2114332/posts#comment Fri, 24 Oct 2008 18:43:15 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2112340/posts With the rise to enduring power of president Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal in 1933, a new type of Republican emerged in reaction to FDR's attractive and overawing power - the-me-too Republican. Until the election of president Reagan five decades later, these me-too Republicans supported, rather than opposed, Democratic Party policies, but claimed they would administer them better. Of course this led to a half-century of Democratic dominance of American government and politics. Washington Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2112340/posts#comment Wed, 22 Oct 2008 17:52:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2109932/posts According to the silver-penned Peggy Noonan, writing in The Wall Street Journal over the weekend, “In the end the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics.” Leave aside Noonan’s negative judgment on Sarah Palin’s candidacy, a judgment I don’t share. Are we really seeing “a new vulgarization in American politics”? As opposed to the good old non-vulgar days? Politics in a democracy are always “vulgar” — since democracy is rule by the “vulgus,” the common people, the crowd. Many conservatives have never been entirely comfortable with this rather important characteristic of democracy. Conservatives’... The New York Times http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2109932/posts#comment Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:51:07 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2109967/posts I'll link to a favorite article by Noonan, from 2007, where her elitist snobbism was really on parade in a minute. I do think it's important to say that Noonan was fired from the Reagan Administration under Donald Regan. Granted, Donald Regan, himself, was fired eventually. But what's interesting is that Noonan wasn't invited back. Here's the relevant paragraphs from that long-ago article about Noonan being forced to 'engage' with lowly working class New Yorkers: "I walk into a shop on Madison Avenue daydreaming, trying to remember what it was I thought last week I should pick up, what was... Maxine’s Place http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2109967/posts#comment Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:16:23 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2109261/posts "Sometimes the leak is so bad that even a plumber can't fix it." This was the concise summation of a cable political strategist the other day, after the third and final presidential debate. That sounds about right, and yet the race in its final days retains a feeling of dynamism. I think it is going to burst open or tighten, not just mosey along. (snip) But we have seen Mrs. Palin on the national stage for seven weeks now, and there is little sign that she has the tools, the equipment, the knowledge or the philosophical grounding one hopes for,... WSJ.com http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2109261/posts#comment Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:30:55 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2109247/posts It is nothing short of stunning this election year to read and listen to some of our most noted national conservatives demonstrate no practical understanding of conservative America. It would serve Peggy Noonan, Charles Krauthammer, Fred Barnes, Kathleen Parker, and Bill Kristol well to shirk cocktail parties and mid-town lunches with the broadcast and publishing hierarchy in Manhattan and D.C. and travel like a presidential candidate for a time. Potluck dinners, small-town festivals, state fairs, church picnics and bowling alleys would be great places to start. Shake some hands. Converse with people. Were they to dare attempt such a journey,... The American Thinker http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2109247/posts#comment Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:00:21 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2107778/posts But we have seen Mrs. Palin on the national stage for seven weeks now, and there is little sign that she has the tools, the equipment, the knowledge or the philosophical grounding one hopes for, and expects, in a holder of high office. She is a person of great ambition, but the question remains: What is the purpose of the ambition? She wants to rise, but what for? For seven weeks I've listened to her, trying to understand if she is Bushian or Reaganite—a spender, to speak briefly, whose political decisions seem untethered to a political philosophy, and whose foreign... Wall Street Journal http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2107778/posts#comment Fri, 17 Oct 2008 05:11:33 GMT http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2099160/posts Fittingly, the news is broken on a show hosted by the second-most fatuous suck-upper on MSNBC. Even if you buy her explanation for the infamous open mic mishap before Palin’s speech (also on MSNBC, coincidentally), this won’t come as a shock to anyone who reads her regularly. She’s a speechwriter and The One gives a good speech, or so I’m assured. That alone was probably enough to earn him a second look. http://hotair.com/archives/2008/10/06/surprise-peggy-noonan-not-sure-who-shes-voting-for/ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2099160/posts#comment Tue, 7 Oct 2008 00:55:07 GMT