Peggy Noonan: This Presidency? Probably Over.

by Little Miss Attila on May 29, 2010

And she, Ann Althouse, and Megan McArdle will have to deal with it for the rest of their lives. Those three women have all been an intellectual blessing to public discourse in this country, but they all succombed to contributed to the same cult of personality two years ago, and we still do not know what the final price tag on that cult of personality is going to be.

They may all be smarter than I am: I’m pretty sure McArdle is. But they all blew it badly, and in retrospect I’m very glad that I drove my Cruiser to Las Vegas and phone-banked there, and worked door-to-door alongside GOP Nevadans and people from out of state and erstwhile Hillary supporters, and slept on D.C. Thornton‘s air mattress for a week, and tried to do everything in my power to keep Barack Obama from becoming President—even if it resulted in a sad night in a casino bar at a “party” where I ate quesedillas and downed a dirty martini and cried while watching McCain’s concession speech before going back to Thornton’s place one last time.

The next day Thornton and I agreed that we would never fall to the seductions of the lefty “he’s not my President” school of thought. That we would discipline ourselves to accept this man as Commander in Chief of the U.S. Armed Forces and leader of the nation.

Then I drove back across the desert to my husband.

In fairness, we didn’t know on the morning after the election—at least, I did not know—just how bad it was going to be.

But I still have a job to do: hold this man accountable for his actions, and point out how they have weakened public morale in this country at a very delicate time.

Here you go, Mr. President:

UPDATE: Althouse responds here. My comment in her entry:

I’ll update the post, and I apologize for my phrasing. I do not, however, see any valid reason why, having decided not to vote for McCain, you would choose to vote for Obama.

You could have shown up at the polls, voted for your congressperson, Senator, etc., and left the Presidential spot blank.

The idea that any adult could have done worse than the man-child who currently occupies the White House is not credible to me.

UPDATE II: Althouse asked me, in her response post, to read this. There was plenty of it, so I skimmed a bit. It really came across, however, as if she 1) gave undue weight to one debate between McCain and Obama, 2) took the common “burn the witch” tack after Palin clammed her Katie Couric interview, and 3) could not get around the way McCain looks, and his age.

I was never a McCain fan. How could I be? How could I ever admire one of the men behind McCain-Feingold? But I thought he was less-bad than Obama. A lot less-bad, in ways that don’t have to do with smoothness in front of a podium, polish in interviews, or any of that superficial stuff.

{ 4 trackbacks }

‘He was supposed to be competent.’ Wait, what? | RedState
May 30, 2010 at 11:42 am
Moe Lane » ‘He was supposed to be competent.’ Wait, what?
May 30, 2010 at 11:45 am
Peggy Noonan: Obama Was Supposed to Be Competent. Me: Said Who?
May 30, 2010 at 1:54 pm
Althouse Accuses Me of Stereotypical Thinking | Little Miss Attila
May 31, 2010 at 1:30 pm

{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }

vanderleun May 29, 2010 at 11:59 am

That’s gonna leave a mark.

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DavidL May 29, 2010 at 4:29 pm

Never have so many projected so much onto so little. Not only is Barrack Obama not competent, there was no evidence which would have suggested that he was.

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Francis W. Porretto May 29, 2010 at 11:51 pm

There’s a potential silver lining here: The Obamunist experience might have inoculated the nation against left-liberal ideology and Obama’s sort of politicking. If so, it could be fifty years before another social-fascist / redistributionist demagogue rises to trouble America. That would be long enough to get me safely and cozily into the ground, which, at this point, is all I ask.

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Jocon307 May 30, 2010 at 5:52 pm

David is right and I certainly hope Francis is too. And yes, it is true that even the most opposed of us didn’t know, could not have imagined “just how bad it was going to be”.

The bottom line to Barack Obama’s unfortunate victory is the complete abdication of the media from their duty to investigate and inform the public. They failed in their First Amendment mission and Noonan et al. were part of that failure. The lurid coverage afforded the pregnancy of Bristol Palin proves and underscores this point.

Don’t let the men off the hook here, at least none of these gals ever said Obama should be pres ’cause his pants were creased so nice.

Gosh darn, even my dandy of a dad would never have said that!

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Moneyrunner May 31, 2010 at 7:21 am

This wouldn’t be happening if Obama was President. Impeach Sarah Palin!
If only Barack Obama had been elected and old John McCain hadn’t died, we wouldn’t have a clueless radical demagogue in the White House whose only talent is giving a speech to fire up the rubes.

If only we had listened to the media.

Oh wait ….

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daisy May 31, 2010 at 8:00 am

I’ve not read McArdle. Peggy went for Obama because she dearly wants to be part of the in crowd in New York, Althouse went for McCain becuase she can’t face the fact that she’s not a hip young college girl anymore.

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Gerry May 31, 2010 at 8:57 am

No excuses. It was right in front of them, and they ignored it. Twenty years in Wright’s church, listening to “Damn America”, meant nothing. Associating with Ayers and Dohrn meant nothing. No executive experience meant nothing. 149 “Present” votes meant nothing. Brzezinski, Power, Rice, Malley, Kurtzer, Indyk as foreign policy advisors meant nothing. Pals like Rezko meant nothing.

They went for him, hook, line, and sinker.

Now they’re moaning. Too late. Thinking with one’s heart instead of the head has consequences.

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Joe May 31, 2010 at 9:21 am

Well said LMA. About time someone said “I told you so” with substantive criticism.

“They may all be smarter than I am: I’m pretty sure McArdle is.”

Ouch. Okay, I can see how that dig got under Althouse’s skin. You put her on the short bus with Noonan.

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Joe May 31, 2010 at 10:12 am

Ann Althouse said…
“Ouch. Okay, I can see how that dig got under your skin.”

I didn’t even read that line until I read your comment.

BTW, Blake nailed it.

5/31/10 12:23 PM

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Little Miss Attila May 31, 2010 at 10:21 am

Actually, not a dig, though it might have been generous to say that about Noonan, who after all is only a good writer, and those are a dime a dozen these days.

Althouse isn’t smarter than I–but she is much, much more educated. McArdle is more educated, and her type of intelligence (one that is willing to crunch numbers) is one I shall never possess. It is what my mom, the math teacher, used to have, and I do mystify it every now and then.

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tim maguire May 31, 2010 at 10:43 am

Just because Althouse can explain her position without using the words “cult of personality” does not mean she wasn’t suckered in by the cult of personality. Her assumption that Obama had abilities he never showed, that McCain’s shortcomings were necessarily Obama’s strengths, suggests to me that however she dresses it up, you were exactly right in saying she was an Obama cultist. Of course she was.

As for who’s smarter, I read McCardle and Althouse regularly. They are thoughtful women with interesting takes on some issues, but each has something in their brain that wants to be lied to. And that’s the part of their brains that caused them to vote for Obama.

They each regularly say things that make me go “that’s just Megan (or Ann) being Megan (or Ann), much as Joe Biden’s supporters do.

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vanderleun May 31, 2010 at 1:05 pm

Like I said, “That’s gonna leave a mark.”

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Kensington May 31, 2010 at 2:08 pm

Yeah, your experience sounds similar to mine, except I worked the phones and houses in Pennsylvania. As awful as Obama is, I know that I tried my darndest to keep him out of the White House and apparently saw things much more clearly than our smarter betters did.

That’s a small comfort, and it doesn’t make up for having to endure this awful president’s policies for possibly another six and a half years, but what else is there?

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