If I could have a roundtable of my favorite editorial page writers, Peggy Noonan would be first on my list (followed by Eugene Robinson, Maureen Dowd, E.J. Dionne, David Brooks, Thomas Friedman, Gail Collins, Bob Herbert, Howard Kurtz, Richard Cohen, Frank Rich, and Charles Krauthammer in case you were going to ask). In an earlier blog post, I pointed out that she gets it with feeling tired of the Clintons. Today she showed that she gets it with Reverend Wright in a way I haven't yet read, and I honestly felt like crying at the end. Really! It must be that I'm feeling disillusioned with Barack Obama. I've been supporting and defending and explaining him so ardently because I want him to win. But lately I've seen evidence that he's got the smarts, but not the guts to take it all the way. His opponents are defining him before he's had a chance to define himself and I start to worry, maybe he can't win. Am I buying into the Clintonistas' argument?
And then, Hillary Clinton goes one on one with Bill O'Reilly, knocking it out of the park, garnering favorable press, and making Fox News look like the only network worth watching. They talked politics just like we all do, in raised voices cutting each other off mid-sentence. It was refreshing to see a debate executed in the informal style we all use when arguing with friends, family, and co-workers. O'Reilly was rude to her as he usually is with guests he doesn't agree with, labelling her a socialist and interrupting her before she could finish an explanation, but she parried right back and showed her mastery of the issues right there in the lion's den. Obama is going on Meet the Press this Sunday to show his mettle with Tim Russert, but does anyone really think that he could go one on one with O'Reilly and break even? He couldn't even handle some tough questions at the very staid ABC debate or push back against the moderators to get them to change the page.
And this whole Reverend Wright thing! After reading in the New York Times about how this whole horrible misunderstanding may have come about between Obama and Wright, my heart was breaking. But then along came Peggy to explain it all. It's just so wonderful to read something so artfully expressed that I wished I'd written it myself. And while one might expect Reagan's speech writer to be shocked at Rev. Wright's rantings, she's just not. Yes, some of his ideas are anti-American, but what of it...seriously? What a breath of fresh air! She put his lunacy into context without apologizing, just identifying it for what it is and then dismissing it because his most repellant ideas are of marginal consequence even if you believe as he does. She doesn't blame Obama either, and I daresay I detect a whiff of support. She seems to have taken over the Maureen Dowd role in coaching along the neophyte in how he's perceived and what he's got to do to win. Thank you again!
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I am going to say something and then take it away. Hillary made me feel proud to be a democrat when she went on Fox. Other than that she makes me wince when I look at her whole picture. I was wishing she was an Obama surrogate. LOL
If we as Democrats believe it doesn't matter how we get to the presidency than let her have it. If we believe that the way politics is played is the problem she isn't the one.
Obama has not made me wince. He has empowered me to wake up from being a sleep at the wheel of politics. If he loses and I've gained this and millions of others have gained this, than he has done the country more of a favor than being president could do. I'm not much for brawling and battling, but if the rest of the country is, I will have to sit back and let them fit...indivisible...doesn't ring true really.
Peggy Noonan is right, but I don't think she is speaking to those that don't vote on substance.
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