Peggy Noonan: Mic off, truth on
September 3, 2008 at 6:07 pm by Andisheh Nouraee in NewsOne of my favorite conservative columnists is the Wall Street Journal’s Peggy Noonan. A former Reagan speechwriter. I don’t typically agree with her, but her prose is graceful and she doesn’t ooze venom, loathing and opportunistic cynicism like Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly, et al.
Unfortunately, her column today on Gov. Sarah Palin was wishy-washy crap.
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.
Peggy Noonan loves Sarah Palin. No, wait, Peggy Noonan hates Sarah Palin.
Noonan’s an experienced political hand who certainly has a more-informed opinion than most. She’s simply not willing to share it on the record.
It’s like Noonan’s got a gun to her head while gargling the Palin Kool-Aid; unwilling to spit it out for fear or pissing off her Republican fans, and unwilling to swallow it because she doesn’t want to be on the record saying anything positive about someone she knows is poison for her party.
How do I know what Noonan really thinks of Palin?
Because she accidentally told me today.
When she thought the mics were off after an interview on NBC today, Noonan called McCain’s selection of Palin “political bullshit” and said, presumably of McCain’s chances of winning, “It’s over.”
I eagerly await Buzz Brockway and gang at Peach Pundit denouncing of Peggy Noonan as a high-tech lyncher.
September 3rd, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Beautiful.
September 3rd, 2008 at 11:50 pm
Bad news for you Andi as Peggy says she was misquoted.
BTW, Palin hit a homer tonight. I hope you didn’t put any money on her being dropped from the ticket. :-)
September 4th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
Here’s a transcript of the open mic chat:
‘ 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 –
Peggy Noonan: It’s over.
Mike Murphy: Still McCain can give a version of the Lieberman speech to do himself some good.
Chuck Todd: I also think the Palin pick is insulting to Kay Bailey Hutchinson, too.
Peggy Noonan: 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?
Peggy Noonan: 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.
Peggy Noonan: 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.
MM: You know what’ sreally the worst thing about it? The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical.
CT: This is cynical, and as you called it, gimmicky.
MM: Yeah.’
September 5th, 2008 at 12:13 am
Didn’t sound like a misquote to me, Buzz.