Open Letter to Peggy Noonan: Are You Big Enough For This Moment?

October 2, 2008
New York City

Peggy ---

You've been even busier than usual these last few days, so we haven't run into one another at the market. And I don't feel like shoveling a long thought into a box on a web site you may never look at. Anyway, there's nothing I'll say here that I couldn't tell you at the checkout counter.

I want to tell you a story and ask you a question.

Here's the story, from a diary on DailyKos. The writer is Dagan68, who describes himself as a 42-year-old ex-Republican with no great history of activism. For a few weeks now, he's been urging people in Dallas to register. Mostly, he talks with African-Americans and Latinos.

Here's his story:

Early on, my canvassing partner and I ran into two young black men --- bling, tattoos, etc. I try not to be racist, but it was all I could do not to be scared to death. They came up to us, and we introduced ourselves. The one gentleman's name is Kai. I asked Kai if he was registered to vote. He said, "No" and we discussed how he could register. He looked up at me --- and I swear he was tearing up in his eyes --- he said, "You are the first white man who has ever spoken to me with respect in my life. I appreciate all the work you are doing for Obama." He then asked for more registration forms --- he took about 100.

I understand from a friend at a local official registration location that Kai did indeed show up --- with about 50 of his friends in tow. I actually started crying.

I tell you this story because I think it would gladden your heart. We may not agree on the way to get there, but a love of country and a hope for a more perfect union --- these we share. And what patriot wouldn't swell with pride when people who have long considered themselves outside our system sign up to be part of it?

And I tell you this story because your recent commentary has confused me.

In your new book, Patriotic Grace: What It Is and Why We Need It Now, you condemn "the politically cheap and manipulative." And you say: "We must now have our fights over big issues, issues of real consequence that are pertinent to the moment we're in. We shouldn't be fighting and hitting each other over the head over little things, stupid things, needlessly chafing ones."

And yet, in the last few weeks, you have been a cheerleader for the nastiest, most divisive candidates I've ever seen. Sarah Palin decided she couldn't be bothered honoring the terms of a formal debate, and you overlooked her anti-factual attacks on the Democratic candidate to applaud "a complete populist pitch. " Days after you proclaimed "she killed" and every major poll showed that what she seemed to be killing was McCain's approval rating, you were still high on Palin. And John McCain? For you, he's always a good and decent man to know no matter what vile untruths spill from his lips.

But now Palin's been unleashed, and it's impossible not to see that she's a demagogue in training who'd like to start her speeches with references to Rev. Wright and end them with --- well, we don't know how far she'll go, do we? And today John McCain asked a crowd "Who is the real Barack Obama?" and didn't stop to correct the jerk in the crowd who shouted out "Terrorist!"

Also today, a County Sheriff introduced Sarah Palin with these words: "On November 4, let's leave Barack Hussein Obama wondering what happened."

Tonight, you were on Hardball, and Chris Matthews asked you about that "Hussein" comment.

Your response: "They are not big enough for the moment."

I could say, "Good start," but you and I know that "They are not big enough for the moment" isn't much of anything. Considering the urgency of putting out this fire, it's a euphemism, a nice girl expression of disapproval. It doesn't separate you from McCain and Palin in any meaningful way --- it's a kind of acquiescence, a gentlewoman's quarrel with her political masters. No Sunday host need fear that you will wander off the reservation and create unscripted news, no party official should worry that you'll unload on McCain or Palin at a gathering of the faithful. "They are not big enough for the moment" is the remark of a tabletop ornament, a decoration --- the Republicans' very own maverick intellectual.

But here's the thing. You're not like the others who shill for McCain-Palin. Coulter, Hannity, O'Reilly, Ingraham --- they're operatives, easily replaceable. You're a writer, a real one, and when you put words in Ronald Reagan's mouth, he soared. You believe he was great; I contend you made him great. And even now, all these years later, I see in columns that mostly infuriate me a woman who cares deeply about her words and their effect on the world.

So "They are not big enough for the moment" just won't do. Not when McCain has announced that character assassination is his message for the final weeks of the campaign. John McCain a good man done in by his wicked handlers? Please. Aristotle --- you've read him, even if the others haven't --- knew what a canard that is: "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit."

After tonight's debate, you'll probably be a talking head on some cable show. If not, in the final weeks of the campaign, I expect I'll see you often on my screen. So I ask you to think about those new African-American voters in Dallas who ought to thrill you and the Republican candidates who deserve your blunt, unequivocal condemnation.

And I put a question to you: This moment --- are you big enough for it?

Regards.

Jesse

Comments

[example1]

very nice post.

[rockyb26]

Amazing! I've been feeling the same way!

[pons1595]

Fabulous post. This woman must answer the question because if she does not she will lose her soul--if she has one left!

[CrazyJane]

Fabulous.
Any answer?

[Ginger5]

Truly strong post.
Noonan needs to stand up and defend the values that she has laid down for the last 20 yrs.
Noonan needs to decide whether she is a writer who is conservative or if she is just another lame republican.

[Grrr]

Jesse: Excellent post. Keep up the great work.

[jorydozier]

Jesse put into words beautifully what bugs the hell out of me about Peggy Noonan. She should have stayed behind the scenes as a speech writer. Her beautiful way with words are wasted defending these bottom feeding candidates.

[supervoter]

"They're not big enough for the moment?" What does that even mean?
Where is the woman who wrote perhaps the greatest presidential speech of all time, Reagan's after the Challenger blew up?
Peggy, Peggy. We hardly know ye.

[RGray]

I too respected Peggy Noonan on the basis of her beautiful and intelligent writing. I did not know of and was surprised to learn of her Republican affiliation. I am saddened that she does not seem big enough to meet her own challenge and decry the evil in the McCain/Palin campaign. I know that this is politics. I know that cynics believe that a politician will do and say what is necessary to get elected. But to allow and condone by your silence calls for violence against a candidate, to be silent in the face of abject hatemongering as McCain/Palin have done, is despicable. Ms. Noonan should be big enough this moment to speak out against them and anyone else would stand silently by.

[jfor]

It is a scary thing to know that a certain percentage of the population supports McCain and the unprofessional campaign he has run. The ridiculous and racist comments McCain's most strident supporters so freely use to describe a US Senator and American demean our entire country as well as prove McCain is unfit to lead. The thought that my neighbors and friends with those GIANT McCain signs actually support McCain and his negative and divisive comments makes me wonder what is going on in the USA and why does it seem we are going backwards?

[stsw531]

How many republicans reading this article will positively shriek and shudder at the very idea of 50 bling-laden black guys voting? It's fine to have barely literate rednecks picking the president -- in fact, we (the liberal elite) are supposed to fall all over ourselves to respect their choice (they of the "hard-working white Americans" that form the "backbone of the American economy." It's interesting that the political choice of "hard-working white Americans" is supposed to matter more, somehow, than the choice of hard-working blacks, hard-working latinos, hard-working asians. Obama seems, to me, the only real, authentic "working class hero" that most of us have seen in our lifetime. I'm proud to support him along with my fellow Americans of every race, religion and class.

[honeychild]

A magnificent article, thank you :-)

[nkhogan]

Peggy, dig deep. Although I never agreed with your political philosophy, I always respected you. I read your book about your years as Reagan's speech writer and I thought here is a genuine conservative, someone who is fair, someone of integrity, someone who I could respect.

During the primaries you wrote fascinating and fair columns about Obama. I might not have always agreed with what you wrote, but you wrote fairly, intelligently, and honestly and I always looked forward to your Friday column in the WSJ to see what you had to say. I have been shocked and disappointed by your recent columns. You are defending the indefensible and I honestly did think you were big enough for the moment. I saw you shill for your book on Jon Stewart and I was disgusted. I saw an arrogant, proud, preening and pretentious woman in love with the sound of her own voice. You believed your own press and now I think you've lost your way. Wake up before it's too late. We need our pundits to be prophets. You used to be one---but you seem to have lost the way and sold out. Stand up and speak out against what your party has become. Susan Eisenhower has. Come over into the light again.

[chendri887]

The Noonster ain't gonna change. She's all into the "real man"-"sissy man" dualism. Remember her columns four years ago about how Americans wouldn't vote for Kerry because he wasn't a "real man" like George W. Bush? I doubt her twisted gender conceptions have changed much since then. So, you stick with your "maverick," your "real men," Peggy, as they drive this country into the ground, into a place that is turning more and more into one of a fundamentalist, dictatorial, fascist swamp that all of you conservative types supposedly hate and fight against.

[krocklin]

Peggy Noonan and David Broder and their ilk will always painstakingly moderate their views even while the brownshirts are taking over.
Palin's "rallies" - never ventured except in the most screened and rightwing venues - are increasingly becoming brownshit rallies.
In one of them a uniformed police chief of the town attempted to whip up the crowd. Is it legal for a paid public servant IN UNIFORM on duty or not to speak at a political rally?

[rubinoff]

Peggy Noonan is a first class 'snob' and believes too much in her so-called self importance.

[hollybork]

Excellent, high minded discussion, Jesse. I am also a fan of the elegant, brilliant and amusing Peggy Noonan. I would like her to declare support for Biden and Obama and join their speech writing team. Bring the great ones together. In Obama she has an orator whose intellect, moral fiber, historic rise, humanism and fluency have deservedly earned him a world stage. As President, he will give a platform to Ms. Noonan's beautiful words. Come on Ms. Noonan. You are big enough for the moment. I'm sure of it.

[CrankyCurmudgeon]

As the McCain campaign rapidly devolves into ill-disguised racism and violence-tinged rhetoric (implicitly encouraged by not calling out those who engage in it), somebody from their camp needs to speak out. Will it be someone like Noonan? You've certainly thrown down the gauntlet, Jesse. Excellent piece I think everyone should give some thought to. Things are getting ugly fast, and you've rightly pointed out how Ms. Noonan, by her silence - or acquiescence - is encouraging it.