Peggy Noonan, celebrated speechwriter for President Reagan and a columnist and contributing editor for the Wall Street Journal, had a “Jesse Jackson moment” this week. She was caught on a live microphone criticizing the selection of GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, whom Noonan has publicly praised.
After the end of an interview on MSNBC, former top GOP strategist Mike Murphy noted some of the successful GOP governors from swing states, to which Noonan replied, “It’s over.” Noonan later responded to a question about whether Palin is the most qualified woman to whom the McCain campaign could have turned. “The most qualified? No,” Noonan said, and then complained that the campaign went for a pick to reinforce a narrative message. “Every time the Republicans do that, because that’s not where they live and it’s not what they’re good at, they blow it,” Noonan said. Murphy then complained: “You know what’s really the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical.”
Noonan responded to the earlier comments with an explanation at the beginning of an online column. She said that the “it’s over” comment was about how the GOP can no longer assume that its base is utterly in line with the thinking of the American people, not that the election is over and that McCain is going to lose.
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27 Comments
It’s all the “Liberal Mainstream Media”s fault.
The Palin pick is the worst political move ever. I am an independent, and I do not believe that Palin could lead this country if something happened to John McCain. I strongly believe that Biden could lead the country. No contest!
She was picked for only one reason, to energize the religious right in the Republican party. It is not sexist to suggest she should be spending her time with her kids, not as VP. It isn’t about her, it is about the kids missing their mother.
Finally, she has been quoted as saying that the Iraq war was God’s plan! That is truly scary, right out of the crusades. If she had to fill in as President, what does that say about her judgement???
No way will I vote for McCain! I would encourage all of you to consider whether you could truly depend on Palin to lead this country in the event something happened to McCain.
Damage control!
Noonan did not “backtrack” —
Noonan said, in effect, that we can not assume that the Republican Party base reflected the majority of the American public. She said that time was “over” — she did not say that the McCain campaign was “over” — you can not listen to the actual comments and believe that it what she meant.
She thinks that Palin was picked for political effect, but she does not discount Palin’s ability.
She says this will either work, fabulously, or not work at all, for McCain.
“Gut: The Sarah Palin choice is really going to work, or really not going to work. It’s not going to be a little successful or a little not; it’s not going to be a wash. She is either going to be magic or one of history’s accidents. She is either going to be brilliant and groundbreaking, or will soon be the target of unattributed quotes by bitter staffers shifting blame in all the Making of the President 2008 books. Of which there should be plenty, as we’ve never had a year like this, with the fabulous freak of a campaign.
More immediately and seriously on Palin:
Because she jumbles up so many cultural categories, because she is a feminist not in the Yale Gender Studies sense but the How Do I Reload This Thang way, because she is a woman who in style, history, moxie and femininity is exactly like a normal American feminist and not an Abstract Theory feminist; because she wears makeup and heels and eats mooseburgers and is Alaska Tough, as Time magazine put it; because she is conservative, and pro-2nd Amendment and pro-life; and because conservatives can smell this sort of thing — who is really one of them and who is not — and will fight to the death for one of their beleaguered own; because of all of this she is a real and present danger to the American left, and to the Obama candidacy.
She could become a transformative political presence.
So they are going to have to kill her, and kill her quick.
And it’s going to be brutal. It’s already getting there.
There are only two questions.
1. Can she take it?
Will she be rattled? Can she sail through high seas? Can she roll with most punches and deliver some jabs herself?
2. And while she’s taking it, rolling with it and sailing through, can she put herself forward convincingly as serious enough, grounded enough, weighty enough that the American people can imagine her as vice president of the United States?
I suppose every candidate for vice president faces these questions to some degree, but because Palin is new, unknown, and a woman, it’s all much more so.
***
I don’t think the most powerful attack line will be, in the end, inexperience. Our nation appears to be in a cycle in which inexperience seems something of a lure. “He’s fresh, he’s new, he hasn’t appalled me yet!” I don’t think it’s age. While Palin seems to me young, so does Obama. I freely concede this is a drawback of getting older: you keep upping your idea of what “old enough” is. But only because when you’re 50 you know you’re wiser and more seasoned than you were at 40, or should be.
America, even as it ages, loves youth and admires its strength.
I think the left will go hard on this: Fringe. Radical. What goes on in her church? Isn’t she extreme? Does she really think God wants a pipeline? What does Sarah Barracuda really mean? They’re going to try and make her strange, outré, oddball. And not in a good way.
In all this, and in its involvement in this week’s ritual humiliation of a 17-year-old girl, the mainstream press may seriously overplay its hand, and court a backlash that impacts the election. More on that in a moment.
***
I’ll tell you how powerful Mrs. Palin already is: she reignited the culture wars just by showing up. She scrambled the battle lines, too. The crustiest old Republican men are shouting “Sexism!” when she’s slammed. Pro-woman Democrats are saying she must be a bad mother to be all ambitious with kids in the house. Great respect goes to Barack Obama not only for saying criticism of candidates’ children is out of bounds in political campaigns, but for making it personal, and therefore believable. “My mother had me when she was eighteen…” That was the lovely sound of class in American politics.
***
How many of you would give a rip about Peggy Noonan if you didn’t think she was taking a shot at McCain?
She didn’t, she was just pushing for another VP pick, that is all.
Palin is far more qualified than Obama!
That is the point of Palin.
How can you put down Palin, without taking a critical look at Obama?
Pushing for another v.p. pick, and rightly so.
Noonan is a speech writer.
She lost out on a speech writing gig vor her favorite pick.
End of story.
“Finally, she has been quoted as saying that the Iraq war was God’s plan!”
Maybe it is Allah’s plan. Get the US bogged down in Iraq so the Jihadists can take over Pakistan.
“Damage control!”
Not very good damage control at that.
“She said that the “it’s over” comment was about how the GOP can no longer assume that its base is utterly in line with the thinking of the American people,”
Well duh.
Particularly the base that wants Palin. Those people are religious kooks HARDLY in line with the thinking of the American people.
Bluejay you have one opinion. Thank you for sharing that with us. But you can no more speak for the American people than Noonan can.
But please feel free to keep giving us your one opinion.
“Palin’s not ready to lead if something happens to McCain!!!”
Um, hello, Obama’s not ready to lead if….he’s elected? I’ll wait for Brownlee to post something about this aspect of the criticism. I have a feeling I’ll be waiting a long time.
“because she is a feminist not in the Yale Gender Studies sense but the How Do I Reload This Thang way”
-Noonan
Funny!
Thank you WEBlog for adding Two More Palin Topics Today!
THREE IN ONE DAY!
YES!
(I don’t think Obama even had such ‘honors’. Not sure which topic to post Palin comments on now though! )
And WHO so foolishly said the Press was Piling on Palin?
Omg you are all, as well as Noonan, such tools.
Noonan need to work on her backwards bicycle pedalling if she’s going to be a ‘publican. That was somewhat less than graceful.
The left is far more out of sync with independents, and middle America.
Noonan is rightly concerned that the conservative base, alone, can not win elections.
However, the conservative base PLUS the people who will be repulsed by William Ayers, Pastor Wright, Rezco and other crooked, crazy, terrorist associations of Obama?
Do the math.
Franklin
Posted September 4, 2008 at 2:54 pm | Permalink
The left is far more out of sync with independents, and middle America.
Noonan is rightly concerned that the conservative base, alone, can not win elections.
However, the conservative base PLUS the people who will be repulsed by William Ayers, Pastor Wright, Rezco and other crooked, crazy, terrorist associations of Obama?
Do the math
___
Don’t be so quick to count those party favors for the Inauguration Paul. Alot of middle class people are repulsed by the fact their jobs are the next ones to be outsourced. They’re paying higher gas prices, higher food costs, higher health care costs, their kids’ schools are not being taken care of, their house may be the next one to be in foreclosure and this Iraq War that is costing $10 billion a month. These average middle class people are blaming George W. Bush and the Republlicans for their troubles.
It does not help when McCain and Palin promise more of the same, even if they mouth the words they are going to shake things up. I did not hear anything from Palin last night about what she will do to help McCain to fix the problems of the average middle class person.
You may not want to believe the Republicans are running with George W. Bush on the ballot, but his ghost is on the ballot – make no mistakes about that.
Palin was picked for VP to rally the Evangelical Christian Social Conservatives, and she has done that. Beyond that, only time will tell.
But from the little we know about Palin, I am wondering what we don’t know. It all depends on what is in this woman’s past that McCain failed to find out before plucking her out of Alaska.
It’s obvious now.
They pay Franklin by the word.
Noonan, Reagan’s speech writer, was right.
What said into the open mike was true.
Both US and The National Enquirer have Palin on their cover, and that’s not a good thing.
“It’s over.” Palin just doesn’t know it yet . . .
Noonan did NOT say that McCain or Palin were “over” —
She said that Republicans Conservatives can not assume that the country agrees with us.
That is nothing new.
We do need to explain ourselves, and Sarah did that very well.
US and National Enquirer?
LOL
Thats all you got!
Mike Murphy: You know, because I come out of the blue swing state governor world: Engler, Whitman, Tommy Thompson, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush. I mean, these guys — this is how you win a Texas race, just run it up. And it’s not gonna work. And –
PN (Peggy Noonan): It’s over.
MM: Still McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.
CT: I also think the Palin pick is insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too.
PN: Saw Kay this morning.
CT: Yeah, she’s never looked comfortable about this –
MM: They’re all bummed out.
CT: Yeah, I mean is she really the most qualified woman they could have turned to?
PN: The most qualified? No! I think they went for this — excuse me– political bullshit about narratives –
CT: Yeah they went to a narrative.
MM: I totally agree.
PN: Every time the Republicans do that, because that’s not where they live and it’s not what they’re good at, they blow it.
*****
Okay. Peggy Noonan says she meant assuming that the Republican base represents an American majority opinion “is over.” Fine.
The rest of what she says isn’t too complimentary toward Failin either. When Republics do what Failin is doing, “they blow it.”
Cool.
US magazine and The Nat’l Enquirer are HUGE.
When political scandal breaks through to the Britney Spears crowd, THAT’s a scandal.
“We do need to explain ourselves, and Sarah did that very well.”
Uh huh.
Um.
Where are they hiding Sarah now?
ONE speech to a an audience that WANTED to be wowed is hardly explanation to the country that they should embrace 4 more years of failed policy.
Here ya go JR. Always happy to keep you updated about the whereabouts of the future VP.
———–
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin on Thursday took an immediate swipe at Democratic nominee Barack Obama in her first solo campaign appearance since joining the GOP ticket. The Alaska governor also issued a fund-raising appeal that blamed the Democratic presidential ticket for spreading “misinformation and flat-out lies” about her family and her.
Palin met with Republican governors Thursday and said afterward that leading a state means you have to make decisions and not just vote “present.”
“We don’t have a ‘present’ button as governor – we are expected to lead, we are expected to take action and not just vote ‘present,’” said Palin, who is in her first term as Alaska’s governor. “So there’s a big difference, of course, between the executive and legislative branches and our experience.”
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080904/D93043G80.html
Maybe after its all over Palin can do a spread for Playboy, and make some real bucks.
Seems I read he used the present option about a dozen times out of about 1200.
Franklin …
You’re kind of windy and wordy, but you pretty much summed it all up when you wrote, “… this fabulous freak of a campaign.” I’m going to trust your interpretation of what Noonan meant when she said, “It’s over.”, as you seem to have put more thought into it than any of the other bicker bloggers. If the Republican Party can no longer be secure in its feeling they represent the mainstream political thinking of this nation, the Democratic Party shouldn’t be reckless enough to assume that the tide is turning in their direction. The collective politico-cognition of this nation doesn’t seem to track ebb and flow in a predictable tidal motion anymore. It seems to have become gaseous, such as the methane of a Noonan crepitation, and is expanding to the available space, where ever that space is. So lets just all kick back and waste somemore of our mental energies deciphering who meant what when they said that.