It’s come to this. Peggy Noonan has a request:
This is my 2008 slogan: Reasonable Person for President. That is my hope, what I ask Iowa to produce, and I claim here to speak for thousands, millions. We are grown-ups, we know our country needs greatness, but we do not expect it and will settle at the moment for good. We just want a reasonable person. We would like a candidate who does not appear to be obviously insane.
How’s that for chucking ideology? Noonan goes on to define who meets the test (Hillary doesn’t, although, strangely, not because she is insane). But nowhere does she ask where candidates stand on the issues. Obama is too young, but ambivalent enough to make that irrelevant. Dodd and Biden have read threat reports, so they’re okay. Romney made a lot of money, so he’s not crazy like, say, H. Ross Perot or Donald Trump.
Here’s my favorite graf.
Duncan Hunter, Fred Thompson, and Bill Richardson are all reasonable–mature, accomplished, nonradical. Mike Huckabee gets enough demerits to fall into my not-reasonable column. John Edwards is not reasonable. All the Democrats would raise taxes as president, but Mr. Edwards’s populism is the worst of both worlds, both intemperate and insincere. Also we can’t have a president who spent two minutes on YouTube staring in a mirror and poofing his hair. Really, we just can’t.
How’s that for seriousness?
Not understanding evolution is my bottom line. Huckabee shows a stubborn stupidity. That’s not reasonable. Then again, if Peggy Noonan gave a shit about reasonability then she’d have gotten Dubya by the scruff of the neck and dumped him out on the White House lawn.
So it’s all so much bullshit.
You know, I agree with you, but I’d like Huckabuck to win if only because I know Noonan and her ilk would spontaneously combust.
They’ve stoked this anti-intellectual, uber-religious wingnuttery for the past 2 or 3 decades, but never meant a word of it. Now here come Huckabuck, who embodies all the snakeoil they’ve been selling…but in a few cases (and a few too many for the rethug establishment) he will actually live up to following some of Christ’s commands to care for the poor.
Oh, but Huckabuck as nominee is an outcome they so RICHLY deserve.
Just remember that batshit crazy Peggy Noonan thought that it was “reasonable” that dolphins rescued a Cuban kid from the sea and brought him to the U.S.
Yeah, that Duncan Hunter is as “non-radical” as they come.
It’s like trying to find a reasonable pundit, not great, just reasonable.
Bloody brilliant reply to Noonytunes.
But I reached for “5 Bloody Brilliant” on the drop down menu, and it wasn’t there. I reckon its because I use Firefox. 4 was as high as I could go.
I can’t believe people get paid to write this bullshit.
Stunning, I know. I’ll probably never reconcile myself to that fact.
When I read bullshit like this from the Noonster, I wonder why I don’t have a job writing newspaper columns.
My stuff is just as stupid and uninformed, and I’m just as good as jumping to incorrect conclusions as she is. The difference is I’m a better writer, and my writing is funnier.
I’d also do well on the talking heads shows: I’m great at losing my temper, babbling on about things I know nothing about, and yelling at people.
When do I get my prime real estate on the WaPo?
you are not certifiably bat shit crazy!
Obviously her definition of ‘reasonable’ is … unique.
And not particularly reasonable.
My guess is that if Hillary Clinton were elected and did not use a hairdryer, the press would go crazy (or crazier).
It is funny to me that she states what to me is a defining factor of this race, and then immediately discounts it. I believe that this country needs greatness to overcome the challenges it faces foreign and domestic. I would not be able to support a candidate whom I did not feel had the potential for greatness.
Unfortunately, none of our candidates have greatness. Most represent a change for the better and none are bloodthirsty religious fanatics.
I have been for Edwards all along, and this is just one more reason to support him.
I expect there will be many more such as this.
Also we can’t have a president who spent two minutes on YouTube staring in a mirror and poofing his hair. Really, we just can’t.
As opposed to a president who spent two minutes on YouTube staring into a camera, poofing his hair and then flipping off the camera. Uh-huh.
I’m with Alice. As far as I’m concerned Edwards just got a ringing endorsement from Alan Greenspan, William F. Buckley and now Peggy Noonan.