Peggy Noonan Lets Loose On Obama: He Is A Loser
By Art Gallagher
Peggy Noonan is an extraordinary wordsmith. As President Reagan’s speechwriter she helped the Gipper change the world. As a columnists, Noonan brings clarity to complex political events with eloquent prose and illustrious alliteration.
In her October 2008 book, Patriotic Grace: What It Is and Why We Need It Now, a pre-election call to America to support the next President after the stresses and divisions of the Bush years, Noonan wrote:
“What we need most right now, at this moment, is a kind of patriotic grace – a grace that takes the long view, apprehends the moment we’re in, comes up with ways of dealing with it, and eschews the politically cheap and manipulative. That admits affection and respect. That encourages them. That acknowledges that the small things that divide us are not worthy of the moment; that agrees that the things that can be done to ease the stresses we feel as a nation should be encouraged, while those that encourage our cohesion as a nation should be supported.”
and
“We must try again to be alive to what the people of our country really long for in our national life: forgiveness and grace, maturity and wisdom.
What a difference three years makes. Yesterday in the Wall Street Journal Noonan wrote of President Obama:
So he is losing a battle in which he had superior forces—the presidency, the U.S. Senate. In the process he revealed that his foes have given him too much mystique. He is not a devil, an alien, a socialist. He is a loser. And this is America, where nobody loves a loser.
What has changed in three years is that we have gotten to know Barack Obama. We didn’t know who he was when we elected him President. We still know very little about the man before he became a U.S. Senator. Those who question his youth, his college years at Occidental, Columbia and Harvard, and his associations in Chicago are labeled as racist by the leftist media elite. Had the media done its job and vetted Obama in 2008, Hillary Clinton would probably be President. Rather, the media anointed Obama and protected him from those who had the incentive to vet him, like the Clintons, or the audacity to do so, which John McCain did not, by playing the race card.
We have learned more about Michele Bachmann in the month that she has been a Presidential candidate than we know about the pre-U.S. Senate Barack Obama.
In 2008, America assumed Obama was a leader. He looked like one and acted like one. Those who didn’t assume he was as leader hoped he was. The Hope that Obama evoked for many was that he was up to the job.
Since his inauguration we’ve learned that he is not a leader and he is not up to the job.
He didn’t lead on ObamaCare. He left that up to Frank Pallone and Nancy Pelosi,who still don’t know all that is in that bill 16 months after they passed it.
He’s not leading now as Congress “works” through the weekend to come up with a debt ceiling deal to prevent a default or downgrade of the full faith and credit of the United States of America. If Obama was a leader, the situation in Washington would never have gotten to where it is today.
What is happening in Washington is not about our country’s finances. It is not about taxes or spending. If it was, an agreement would have been made weeks ago. What is happening in Washington is entirely about Barack Obama and his desire to get elected to another term before America wakes up to who he is.
As Noonan wrote:
The fact is, he’s good at dismantling. He’s good at critiquing. He’s good at not being the last guy, the one you didn’t like. But he’s not good at building, creating, calling into being. He was good at summoning hope, but he’s not good at directing it and turning it into something concrete that answers a broad public desire.
And so his failures in the debt ceiling fight. He wasn’t serious, he was only shrewd—and shrewdness wasn’t enough. He demagogued the issue—no Social Security checks—until he was called out, and then went on the hustings spouting inanities. He left conservatives scratching their heads: They could have made a better, more moving case for the liberal ideal as translated into the modern moment, than he did. He never offered a plan. In a crisis he was merely sly. And no one likes sly, no one respects it.
When I first read the last two sentences of Noonan’s piece my head snapped. I was shocked that such a dignified writer would end a brilliantly written and insightful piece (which in addition to Obama, accurately described the Republican vs Tea Party relationship) so colloquially.
But if there was a better way to say it, Noonan would have. Once again Peggy Noonan has nailed it. She has articulated the obvious truth of our situation before anyone else crystallized it.
We may have needed Patriotic Grace in 2008. We didn’t get it because we did not elected a graceful leader.
What we need now is leadership. We’re not likely to get it this week or this year. We can Hope for 2012.
More from my site
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“Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you”
Christie’s flattered that Obama imitated his State of the State theme in the State of the Union
Tom Moran Endorses Christie For President in 2011
Monmouth University Poll: 52% Of NJ Voters Approve Of Obama’s Performance
Who won the debate?
Obama’s Greatest Failure
Really? Does anyone, other than the players involved, know what goes on behind the scenes? You thought he was soft on terrorism, and then, working behind the scenes, without any limelight, he takes out Bin Laden. You think that the republican congress is all that, and yet, they play strictly to the base and the baseless to come up with a plan that they KNOW would never pass the Senate, let alone have the President sign it. Its pure evil politics. Republicans have some sort of notion that nothing will happen if we default. That nothing will happen if we just let it pass. Yet, you say nothing about that, and they are completely and utterly wrong.
Shoudln’t it be all about some kind of compromise? Do you hear that little asswipe Cantor talk about compromise? Nope. Do you hear any of the Tea Party fresheman talk about compromise? Hell no. Do you hear the President talking about compromise, knowing that his base will buck him? Absolutely. But compromise is a two way street. When one party is so obstinate that they would rather have the country default than compromise, you should be blasting them. But instead, you give them kudos. Its so partisan, that its just disgusting.
Who did I give kudos to?
It was a collective “you”…not you personally. And I certainly wasn’t talking about you with my last line…that was directed at BOTH parties. I need to calm down when I’m writing so I can make what I’m saying more clear.
I, too, missed the “kudos” section in that post. I did, however, enjoy reading the piece.
Are YOU talking about compromise? For the first 13 months of Obama’s Presidency (while they had 60 members in the Senate), the President or the House or Senate leaders didn’t have a SINGLE meeting with any Republican leader, and they didn’t allow debate on a SINGLE bill in the House.
And is cutting $100 billion from the President’s $3.5 trillion spending plan (I wouldn’t call it a budget, since we haven’t had a budget is almost 2 years) really a compromise?? Show me cutting in half what the Dems added to spending since they took power, and then we can use the word compromise.
Those who questioned his youth, his college years at Occidental, Columbia and Harvard have had their crackpot theories dubunked long ago just as the birthers did.
See factcheck.org and snopes.com
A more interesting question at this point would be to ask what elements in this country are putting togother dozens of e-mails that are forwarded around the internet to and by gulible people that dislike the President so much that they believe anything negative they read and take it as gospel truth.
I recieved three such e-mails last week from people who were blasting them out to everyone in their address books. Whever I get them, I send a reply to all along with a link to snopes, factcheck etc. which disproves it. To this day I have never received a reply from a sender of any of those noting that they made a mistake and were apologizing for the blatent lies they were spreading.
Oh sorry, I didn’t know snopes.org and factcheck.org are the ultimate repositories of truth in America. Snopes is known for its liberal bias, and factcheck.org is owned by the Annenberg Foundation… Oh wait, wasn’t Obama the Chairman of the Chicago Anneberg Challenge?
Chris…there are numerous other non partisan sites were these crazy theories have been disproven with facts.
The facts are – no one knows anything about Obama prior to his “community activist” days in Chicago. No childhood/college friends, multiple social security numbers, a whacky family tree – no one can figure out what is going on, and the liberal media is providing all the cover. For God’s sake, they are analyzing how much Michelle Bachmann spends on clothes yet we know relatively nothing about the first 40 years of Obama. As for compromise – the hell with that. No tax increases, a balanced budget and massive spending cuts. Why compromise on that? Obama is an unmitigated failure and this sorry episode is proving it to the masses. The only hope our country has is for Republicans to stand strong and act like true Republicans – do not give into the ultra liberal, America-hating Obama Democrats.
What is your problem with the Presidents family tree especially since the insane birther nonsense has been totally discredited? Still wondering were the apologies are from those that were spreading it??
Doesn’t seem to stop them though from moving right on and doubling down on other loony ideas.
A couple of things we do agree on though is that the press focuses on womens waredrobes in a way they would not focus on a mans. If anyitng they would talk about how well he dresses.
Same thing with the stories about Bachmanns headaches (although some of that was reporting on comments made by Rove and Pawlenty.) I never heard a mans ability to serve before questioned over headaches.
sorry about the typo’s…I can spell, just don’t type very well
Has the birther stuff been discredited? By whom, the liberal press? Why, if there is nothing to it, has it taken our Muslim president so long to produce a copy of a birth certificate? Obama is a disgrace and his birth status, as uncertain and potentially dishonest as it may turn out to be, is the least of his transgressions.
Forget it Bob…birthers and other nuts are out in force….no sense banging your head against their brick walls- for- brains. The ignorant will never believe the facts. They like being ignorant, and if its one thing you can learn by the all the posts that PR spews, is that ignorance is bliss in his case.
Sadly, this little debate has gone astray. The issues presented in Art’s analysis of Noonan’s article have nothing to do with stale, overwrought notions of birthright, or any other loony theories.
I believe Art’s article addresses the fact that if Obama had been properly vetted, it would have been clear that he was not an individual capable of successfully leading the world’s most powerful nation.
Obama is too inexperienced and self-referential. He simply isn’t up to the job. Hillary Clinton was the better choice.
Bored now – sorry this is not up to your intellectual standards, but the thread is exactly what Art was talking about. This person was not vetted in any manner – birthplace, childhood, background, personal associations – everything is a mystery. Which means we are stuck with a person so incredibly unqualified, so bereft of any knowledge of the issues and with a philosophical outlook grounded in every ideology bent on the destruction of this great nation. The Clintons gave up too easily in fighting this lightweight. Not that the Clinton’s liberal, dead bodies in his wake-style would have been much better, but at least we knew everything about those two whack jobs.
Proud…would you have made the same comment regarding the “Muslim” President if he was Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, Mormon or practiced any other faith?
There was always **solid evidence that the President was born in Hawaii. Unfortunately the birthers did not let the facts get in the way of their crazy beliefs.
**Certificate Of Live Birth (which is what is issued by the State of Hawaii 2) At least two birth announcements provided by the hospital in local papers aprox 7-10 days after the Presdient was born. 3) Director of Vital Records in Hawaii confirming that original birth records were on file with the State.
If I were the President, I would have let the birthers continue to make fools out of themselves for a couple of more years.
some of the things said about the guy are true, some,maybe not, but the bottom line is, no candidate in our lifetime got by with so little vetting beforehand, and with so little criticism and fact-checking during a campaign, and now a term, as this one, and everyone knows it’s so…one has to believe it was the pc. press and the kid-glove handling of the first pres. of a different race, but now, can we forget all of that and finally focus on the fact that he, the forgiving leftist media and phony intellectuals, and his band of thugs,lightweights, and socialists, have simply done such a poor job in these past “lost” 3 yrs., that we are nearly over as a nation, and set about getting rid of them all,next election?.. please?..or haven’t enough of us lost jobs, savings and homes, yet?…. granted, the dumbing-down and ove-spending has gone on for years, but it’s now time to wake the hell up, change course, and try another way, now!
Art Noonan joined the cut and run crowed along with Krauthammer against the Tea Party in the end here. I wouldn’t lionize her for that.
We ended up with a bigger debt ceiling and therefore the opportunity to avoid cuts and create more debt.
Proud Republican, my apologies. I meant no disrespect.
I tend to get frustrated with cult-like Obama supporters who drop “bait & hook” issues into conversation in an effort to distract an audience from irrefutable issues. It’s a technique used every time Obama’s actions are painfully lacking on the world stage, ….and I am BORED with it.
If these folks had the wherewithal to step back and take a hard look at what is really going on with our nation’s economy, they might not employ such cheap tactics.
Then again, I suppose we can only hope.
have had my doubts about you at times, but you finally nailed this one: as he celebrates nothing but himself over the next several days, racking up bags of dough to buy his re-election, may we all focus on the utter necessity to see that that does NOT occur, next year!