Peggy Noonan Goes Off On Sarah Palin In Column: "Horrifying"

One of the most refreshingly honest moments of the 2008 campaign came when Peggy Noonan, a columnist and former Republican speechwriter, was caught on a live mike calling the choice of Sarah Palin to run on the Republican ticket "political bullshit." She smoothed over her harsh remarks in a subsequent column, saying she liked Palin even if she wasn't sure the selection would be successful. But now that Palin has announced her plan to resign as Alaska Governor, Noonan apparently feels free to speak openly.

In television interviews she was out of her depth in a shallow pool. She was limited in her ability to explain and defend her positions, and sometimes in knowing them. She couldn't say what she read because she didn't read anything. She was utterly unconcerned by all this and seemed in fact rather proud of it: It was evidence of her authenticity. She experienced criticism as both partisan and cruel because she could see no truth in any of it. She wasn't thoughtful enough to know she wasn't thoughtful enough. Her presentation up to the end has been scattered, illogical, manipulative and self-referential to the point of self-reverence. "I'm not wired that way," "I'm not a quitter," "I'm standing up for our values." I'm, I'm, I'm.

In another age it might not have been terrible, but here and now it was actually rather horrifying.

Noonan goes on to refute the most popular conservative arguments in Palin's favor, from her supposed working-class credentials to the idea that she upsets the mainstream media.

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Comments

[Loveher]

09:45 AM on 07/18/2009

There are those who would have us believe that government is an amoral exercise. Actually, government is the paramount moral exercise, the one where the moral character of individuals and the society is most revealed and most formed. Do people despise Palin for her lack of rhetorical skills or for her lack of hesitation in confessing some very simple truths? That there are good and bad ways of being, that too much government is apt to destroy us?

The world of ethics and politics is incredibly complex. But it's one thing to say that; it's another to attach oneself to the view that nothing is simple. People despise Palin for understanding and saying that some things are simple.

You are likely to say that you despise her for her lack of intellectual subtlety. And the problem is that in some minds, subtlety is the very essence not only of intellectual virtue, but of moral virture as well.

The American form of government encourages a tendency in everyone to want to appear talented and impressive, precisely because our government allows the possibility of some degree of participation in public life to all -- but a participation which depends on the approval of others. In that circumstance, the temptation to care about surface more than substance is even greater than it would otherwise be.

[Bocababs]

12:34 PM on 07/14/2009

Peggy -- I have always liked you, even though I don't agree with some of the policies you promote. This is an article I can point to and say why I like you. It is raw honesty.....the same kind of raw honesty when I take Obama a few notches down and point out to my Liberal friends what he is doing wrong.....even though I support him. If there were more Moderate Voices out there in your Party......and the Independents can carry the day again for your side.......things might move your way again.

[PiscesPrincess]

10:44 AM on 07/14/2009

Peggy. Very very well put. Thank you for your pithy commentary on this charade of a politician.
Wish HP would publish the whole commentary.
thanks again. I am printing it for my husband who is not computer savy.
Have a great day, Peggy and thanks again. Couldn't have said it better myself.

[Bobotheclown]

10:31 AM on 07/14/2009

Sarah Palin is going to be President someday. Not on 2012 but someday. Like Ronald Reagan, all she needs is a good speech writer, a corporate special interest money base, and political insiders to clear the way. Ms Noonan will not be part of this as she will be cast aside by the new politics of the new Republican party. She will not like it but she will never admit to her role in starting a groundswell toward a politics that is decidedly non-American. The Republican party has been remade many times from the moderate Eisenhower centrists that warned against the military-industrial complex, to the neo-cons who were the military-industrial complex. The next step will be further to the right than the neo-cons. Get ready, and do not under estimate Sarah Palin.

[PiscesPrincess]

10:42 AM on 07/14/2009

bobo. Got news for You.
Sarah Palin has deep-sixed herself. She will Never Ever be President of anything, much less the United States. At this point she couldn't even run for the PTA. tsk.

[middlemarch]

12:01 PM on 07/14/2009

she is NOT going to be president of the united states. not ever. she is nothing like ronald reagan, who had an ideology (even though i disagreed with it), sophistication, and a sense for what people needed to hear and wanted to have. plus, he knew a lot about the way government worked.

i definitely do underestimate sarah palin because she is underwhelming, undereducated, and overrated. there is nothing sarah has to offer except a thin veneer. if you love your country, you will try to protect it from narcissists and bullies like sarah palin.

[LarryinMiami]

10:06 AM on 07/14/2009

If this country EVER elects Sarah Paleolithic it will deserve what it gets!

[PiscesPrincess]

10:42 AM on 07/14/2009

Amen to that.

[elizlucinda]

09:12 AM on 07/14/2009

Whether you agree with Ms. Noonan or you don't agree, her article was thoughtful and well written. I personally don't believe that Ms. Palin has the skills or ability to be President. She lacks insight and she lacks experience..and both are critical if you want to be President of the most powerful nation on Earth.

[igorz]

08:41 AM on 07/14/2009

Karma is a beautiful thing, isn't it.

[Schvenzlerman]

06:16 AM on 07/14/2009

Did I write that Noonan has razor-thin lips? Isn't that scary looking?

[elakelaiset]

11:15 PM on 07/13/2009

Remember, Noonan put a lot of words in Saint Ronnie's mouth. And I don't mean Mommy I want a sandwich.

[ttyy]

10:55 PM on 07/13/2009

Palin, Queen of the Idiocracy

Have a Brawndo, this rounds on Sarah's tab...YEEHAW!

[JillScumber]

09:50 PM on 07/13/2009

I belive that Sarah will revive politically when her hair completely falls out ans she appoints Rachel Mattow to work at her knee, wearing a brethylzer, eh?

[trebutts]

07:53 PM on 07/13/2009

In many respects, Sarah Palin is reflective of all that ails our society. I am so sick and tired of folks claiming that people are picking on her because she's attractive. As if being attractive and just plain wrong are mutually exclusive. I was always told beautiful is a beautiful does. When will we learn to value substance over aesthetics, knowledge over ignorance, and true beauty over shiny, flashy, empty things and people?

[t iessa]

09:37 PM on 07/13/2009

An interesting post from someone who believes it would be better to spend his tax money on vacations for the President and his family than on public education.

[PiscesPrincess]

10:54 AM on 07/14/2009

cheap shot. tsk.

[PiscesPrincess]

10:55 AM on 07/14/2009

sad comment.

[plumnelly]

05:23 PM on 07/13/2009

Peggy Noonan stuffed it and now thanks it important to attack , too late.

[antifluff]

01:50 PM on 07/13/2009

There is an old saying that you can tell someone value by the strength of their enimies. This woman seems to have a whole lot of people that claim 'elite knowledge' and want to run others lives upset. It is interesting to see them panic when someone that hasn't been schooled in their circles can scaire them so easily. The plot thickens.

[maddymappo]

01:04 PM on 07/13/2009

I admire Peggy Noonan and I am not a Palin fan, but I think this is a case of a woman being too harsh to another woman, and too big a critic of a pretty woman who has accomplished a lot. Sarah Palin cannot be faulted for being a charismatic icon that appeals to the beauty queen, hunting, fishing simplicity of a frontierwoman myth that is essential americana. Unfortunately, while fascinating us and satisfying our irrational dreams of such a figure, the woman could not live up to the intense scrutiny, and did not have the discipline or intellectiual capacity to fulfill that rational side of the equation that would qualify her to lead. I think Peggy is just frustrated that the first conservative woman who gained the VP nomination was not the intellectual giant or master of communications that she herself is. But how many of us are? Give Sarah a break.

[leftyandproudofit]

04:54 PM on 07/13/2009

Give Sarah a break? Why? If you can't swim with the sharks, get out of the pool. Too bad about Sarah if people have the audacity to question her credentials, which seem few and far between. It's absolutely pathetic that Palin was seriously considered for a job that was clearly way above her pay scale.

[Bibbo]

06:43 PM on 07/13/2009

I have been a big Peggy Noonan fan and find her Palin attacks very troubling. I just don't agree with her assesment that Palin is not a qualified candidate for president. All this talk about lack of "depth" sounds a little like envy. I'm more inclined to think Peggy just doesn't get Palin. Sarah Palin is not interested in power or fame but has a set of beliefs that she thinks that when followed, help people live happier lives. Many of our problems as a country would be solved if people would accept these beliefs. I'm talking about respect for life or pro-life values, traditional family values and a tax structure that fairly treats the wealthy and well off so they are not punished. She has not spent her life preparing to be president and learning all the clever word games that politicians use to decieve and impress. She is a farmer girl not a big city princess. Perhaps the elites like Couric and Sally Quin think she's just not good enough to be president but many of us think plain talk and honesty tell more about a person than ivy league degrees ever could.

[Shawnie1673]

06:10 PM on 07/13/2009

I'm curious. You believe Sarah Palin deserves a break. Why? This is the same woman that tried her best to label now President Obama as a terrorist. There were people in the crowds yelling out, "kill him" and "terrorist," and all the while she's feeding this frenzy, I personally do not trust a person like that. As for the "intellectual giant of master communications" when you want to be President or Vice President, you should be an excellent communicator, and intellectual communicator, she is not.