Peggy Noonan: ‘And leave her kid alone, bitch.’ **UPDATE**
Posted by Dirty Harry on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008
She could become a transformative political presence.
So they are going to have to kill her, and kill her quick.
And it’s going to be brutal. It’s already getting there.
Read it all.
And keep it up, Dems. Obama just lost two points in the Gallup poll. Keep diminishing a woman’s experience and going after her kids.
Keep. It. Up.
Sad update: Obviously Peggy’s column was a big fat lie. Shame on her. If she felt this way she should have written the truth. Disgraceful.
Filed in General |
Stephanieon 03 Sep 2008 at 10:49 am 1I actually think its gonna be OK. Funny thing Mom in Law sent an email and said Obama supporters who were seeing this bs on CNN at the bank were outraged. OUTRAGED…….it makes him look like an ass. Especially since its his supporters doing it.
Matton 03 Sep 2008 at 11:01 am 2Ehhh, you can’t control what your “supporters” say or do.
Obama, for his part, has been clear and adamant that he will not tolerate smearing of Palin’s kids.
Her experience and her resume, of course, are totally up for grabs…and they should be.
Every candidate goes through this nonsense. Palin is no idiot. She knows exactly what she was in for.
As for Noonan, just a couple of weeks ago she compared Obama’s Germany speech to a Nuremberg rally. Talk about smears.
Stephanieon 03 Sep 2008 at 11:03 am 3Thats what Matt hopes. Sighhhhhhhhhhh………
Sawbuckon 03 Sep 2008 at 11:09 am 4Is it just me, or is Peggy Noonan some kind of national treasure?
And though it is more apparent than usual this year - the Media just doesn’t get it.
I am old enough to remember when Hubert Humphrey as a Presidential candidate was supportive of personal firearms ownership because “Certainly one of the chief guarantees of freedom
under any government, no matter how popular and
respected, is the right of citizens to keep and bear
arms…. The right of citizens to bear arms is just one
guarantee against arbitrary government, one more
safeguard against the tyranny which now appears
remote in America but which historically has proven
to be always possible.”
What the hell happened to THAT Democratic party?
Or clearer yet? he also said “The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously. ”
Of course, none of the political reporters remember the last election at all, let alone a time when the last of the Statemen walked the Earth. God I miss Reagan.
The election will be bloody - but cleansing.
Carolynon 03 Sep 2008 at 11:10 am 5Peggy Noonan: “If they (mainstream media) appear, once again, as they have in the past, to be people not reporting the battle but engaged in the battle, if they allow themselves to be tagged by that old tag, which so tarnished them in the past, they will do more to imperil their own future than the Internet has.”
Excellent! But Ms. Noonan - I have a minor quibble. You use the ‘future tense - i.e., the media ‘will’ imperil itself? Honey, the tense is past. Way past.
Johnon 03 Sep 2008 at 11:18 am 6Matt-
You live and die by the sword. Obama has been riding the media’s wave of support on this one and loving every minute of it. They’ve built him up, they’ve created him- do you think they are going to waste all of that for him to blow it on McCain and a “pretty litte girl” from Alaska? Does Obama really think the media is going to listen to him now? Hell, they’ve never listened to him to begin with. It’s more important for them to elect him, too important to allow him to play nice now.
He may not have unleashed the dogs, but people around him have, and he’s smiled all along. He may not be the one with the teeth, but he’s the one left holding the chain.
Stephanieon 03 Sep 2008 at 11:21 am 7I don’t think they would have done to Hillary what they did if they had been Listening to Obama. Besides from what people are saying, certain dem operative showed up in Alaska and funny enough they work for HIM. Now Matt can also explain to us why its OK for Sara Palin’s ssn to be stolen. Come on Matt how come thats OK for them to do it. And don’t defend Obama. Anything done in his name reflects upon him. But I doubt you understand that.
Blackiswhite, Imperial Agent Provocateuron 03 Sep 2008 at 11:28 am 8A print “journalist” who gets it! Quick! Take a picture!
Looking Glasson 03 Sep 2008 at 11:34 am 9RightwingSparkle, commenter on ‘Ace of Spades’, has set up proudofpalin.blogspot.com.
The best thing we can do right now is proudly show our support of Governor Palin while the Left publicly self-destructs.
George W. Bush has done this in every campaign against the Democrats. Stand tall and let the MSM show themselves for what they are. It’s worked four times in a row.
Governor of Texas 2x
President of the United States of America 2x
Rush Limbaugh, many years ago, said that if you do the right thing and ignore the media and polls you’ll win every time. Reagan proved it. President George W. Bush proved it.
McCain and Palin will prove it too.
JohnFNWayneon 03 Sep 2008 at 11:39 am 10“If they (mainstream media) appear, once again, as they have in the past, to be people not reporting the battle but engaged in the battle, if they allow themselves to be tagged by that old tag, which so tarnished them in the past, they will do more to imperil their own future than the Internet has.”
I’ve tried to make this point in the past, and the libs in the newsroom just don’t get it. I brought up the Washington Post piece on Obama rumors in Findlay and was told I wasn’t a “true journalist” because I thought it was 1.) pure chickenshit do something like this outside their own circulation area 2.) leftist political pander, because the Post has done nothing ever to combat rumors about Republicans in Democratic areas and 3.) another reason for middle America to tune out the press as being elitist and out of touch. I was told I was a hack and “not a real journalist.”
The built in excuse for these attacks on Palin and the free pass given to Obama is that Obama is black. Seriously, that’s the mantra, I’ve heard it and read it from more than one person in charge. Obama is black, therefore he already has a card dealt against him, there by it’s the media’s duty to maintain fairness - i.e. less scrutiny of Obama and more shit pieces like the Post in Findlay. Their stabbing at inequality with a butcher knife, unwilling to notice they are stabbing their own credibility in the crotch.
Mr. Wolfon 03 Sep 2008 at 11:46 am 11Like I said over at the Ldotter site, Peggy is seriously channeling Ellen Ripley there.
^..^
wfon 03 Sep 2008 at 12:03 pm 12JohnFNWayne, that would not surprise me. Just a small quibble. This rage at “elites” feels wrong to me. I think elites are admirable. We´re not collectivists, are we? Unprofessional and untrustworthy are better expressions. These guys are not elitist, they are snobs pure and simple. There´s a good word. I also like “partisan hacks”.
Rabidwolfeon 03 Sep 2008 at 12:08 pm 13As an Alaskan who (mostly) lurks on this blog, I just have to say: Keep up the good work DH!
Matton 03 Sep 2008 at 12:10 pm 14John-
I just don’t think this media firestorm is out of the ordinary.
While I do believe the kids should be left out of it, the media is just pointing out that the GOP and the conservative movement has been, for years, lambasting unwed, teenage mothers and the deviant culture that celebrates them. Lo, and behold, the presumptive GOP VP finds herself saddled with an unwed, pregnant teen, and it’s like the whole party turns a blind eye to it. There’s no condemnation. No embarassment. No long essays about the terrible culture that produced this event. In fact, this is being celebrated at the GOP convention! The whole Palin fam-bly is a’coming to town!
This is got to be the weirdest election year in memory. Conservatives nominate a guy they say is not conservative. Last night, Bill Clinton got applause. And the GOP is celebrating unwed, pregnant teens.
Johnny Ed's Babyon 03 Sep 2008 at 12:20 pm 15Matt
Lets see Obama call out the hate coming from the kos crazies. He thought enough of them to go to their convention and solicit their support. So even though they may not listen, if he is truly outraged and wants it to stop, he has to speak longer and louder.
Those are his supporters flinging the mud and he would rather win an election than lose their support.
Looking Glasson 03 Sep 2008 at 12:20 pm 16JohnFNWayneon wrote on 03 Sep 2008 at 11:39 am
“They are stabbing their own credibility in the crotch.”
I demean myself in the journosphere. This doesn’t surprise me.
Mark Potts, the Recovering Journalist, wrote in ‘The John Edwards Affair’
http://recoveringjournalist.typepad.com/recovering_journalist/2008/08/the-john-edwards-affair.html
“This is a pretty shameful episode, and it illustrates why so many people mistrust or don’t believe the press. Many years ago, a smart editor told me, “They really hate us out there.” Incidents like this are why.”
And that was a minor faux pas compared to this debacle.
Ginaon 03 Sep 2008 at 12:22 pm 17Here’s where you’re mistaken, Matt: We (at least most of us) have been lambasting the culture, not the mothers themselves.
billypaintbrushon 03 Sep 2008 at 12:32 pm 18obama has not chastised any of the kos crap. he is a lying eddie haskell weasel who causes trouble then steps back under his halo. f’him
no doubt a reporter will ask sarah after her speech, boxers or briefs? after starting the question with where bristol and levi are standing. whatta bunch of pukes.
mjkon 03 Sep 2008 at 12:34 pm 19Matt
When does “what happens in the bedroom is private” happen again? Or does it only apply to when Billy Clinton is getting BJ’s in the Oval Office? Or maybe John Edwards running away from the Enquirer like a puss?
This is a 17 year old girl that they are demonizing. Who isn’t even running for office. Who is married the Daddy of her baby. Who has the right to privacy just like anyone else. She is a private citizen and her private life should be treated with respect.
Ohio Wolverine momon 03 Sep 2008 at 12:34 pm 20Anyone see the new talking points the DNC is trying out? Some Dem pundits on with Shep Smith are trying to say that it is a constitutional issue—that we will put someone within a heartbeat of the presidency who has not been vetted—and that Obama has been vetted over the last eighteen months.
Saying it to Smith gets it said (to then be repeated—-repeat the lie enough tactic) and they know that Smith does not had the cajones to challenge the “Obama has been vetted” part.
Yeah, because the crowd of MSM backing Stanley Kurtz’s investigation is so big…. s/o.
Matton 03 Sep 2008 at 12:41 pm 21Johnny Ed’s Baby: “Lets see Obama call out the hate coming from the kos crazies. He thought enough of them to go to their convention and solicit their support. So even though they may not listen, if he is truly outraged and wants it to stop, he has to speak longer and louder. Those are his supporters flinging the mud and he would rather win an election than lose their support.”
Why should he get involved anymore than he has? Isn’t this McCain and Palin’s problem? I didn’t exactly hear McCain come out to repudiate Jerome Corsi’s book, which has been a best-seller for the past three weeks, and is filled with smears and unsubstantiated rumors.
If McCain didn’t realize that a pregnant, unwed teen-age daughter of a GOP (!!!!) VP selection would cause a major shitstorm, then he’s an idiot. If one McCain supporter had come out and said, “We do not approve of this disturbing trend of teen-age preganancy. Regardless, we are in full support of the family and the nominee,” they would not get so much crap.
Why, all of a sudden, is it Obama’s responsibility to fix McCain’s problem?
Conan O'Lenomanon 03 Sep 2008 at 12:55 pm 22Need to know…one of left’s minions just said on TV, “the American people want to know” about Palin’s personal life so it’s fair for the MSM to dig the dirt. Well, then, the American people want to know more about Odimbo’s fellow-traveling mother, since she probably had the greatest impact on his formation:
From Asia Times:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/JB26Aa01.html
…”Naivete” is a euphemism for Ann Dunham’s motivation. Friends describe her as a “fellow traveler”, that is, a communist sympathizer, from her youth, according to a March 27, 2007, Chicago Tribune report. Many Americans harbor leftist views, but not many marry into them, twice. Ann Dunham met and married the Kenyan economics student Barack Obama, Sr, at the University of Hawaii in 1960, and in 1967 married the Indonesian student Lolo Soetero. It is unclear why Soetero’s student visa was revoked in 1967 - the fact but not the cause are noted in press accounts. But it is probable that the change in government in Indonesia in 1967, in which the leftist leader Sukarno was deposed, was the motivation. ..
Interesting background on this cypher who wants to be president, from an ASIAN newspaper.
Looking Glasson 03 Sep 2008 at 12:57 pm 23Matt wrote on 03 Sep 2008 at 12:41 pm “Why, all of a sudden, is it Obama’s responsibility to fix McCain’s problem?”
Remember how Dan Rather re-elected George W. Bush in 2004 with a hateful false attack? McCain has gotten the media to re-enact that.
Journalists are being played, and giving their industry the coup de grace in the process.
Obama’s passive-aggressive stance after a mild, token “please dont” is transparently thin. If he wants to be the leader of the Free World, this is the best chance he’ll ever have to show leadership.
McCain is betting his whole campaign on lack of character on the part of the news media and Barack Obama. He’s winning overwhelmingly.
Robert Lindseyon 03 Sep 2008 at 1:01 pm 24A voter laughing is half-way there. I thought of this when Bob Dole appeared on Letterman the night after he lost the election. I thought “If he had showed this side of himself during the campaign, he would have won.” He has such a natural wit, but during the election season he was so serious and dour.
Looking Glasson 03 Sep 2008 at 1:34 pm 25Robert Hahn, a commenter on Pajamas Media:
The Obama campaign can only watch in horror as their carefully-scripted victory is smashed on the rocks by people trying to help. Obama’s fans in the blogosphere — and in the legacy media — cannot now be stopped. They will attack, and attack, and attack. They will do the most thorough job of publicly stoning a woman and her children the world has ever seen. Saudi honor killings will seem tame compared to what professional journalism has in store for Sarah Palin.
All of this will done in the hopes of aiding the Obama campaign.
What it will do instead is bring forth one of the most powerful cultural forces uniting humanity: the visceral urge to rush to the aid of threatened women and children.
The smarter heads in the Obama campaign are probably realizing this as we speak. But they will not be able to make it stop. The Kossacks, the Frank Rich’s, the Ron Forniers, the Campbell Browns and the Wolf Blitzers will not be able to contain their already-on-display hatred of this threat to their politics. They will cut, and slash, and burn, no matter how loudly their Messiah asks them to stop. They think they are helping. They think they are destroying The Enemy.
They are destroying themselves.
Matton 03 Sep 2008 at 1:39 pm 26Looking Glass: “Remember how Dan Rather re-elected George W. Bush in 2004 with a hateful false attack? McCain has gotten the media to re-enact that.”
Put aside serious doubts that the anchor of the lowest rated of three low-rated evening news programs tipped the election in Bush’s favor, I have trouble understanding this “hateful false attack” the “media” is putting out.
Palin’s daughter is an unwed, pregnant teen. This is a fact. I do not believe this should be an issue, just as I did not believe that flag pins should have been an issue. But this is the political culture that we on the left and the right embrace and foster. We sure love it when it works on our enemies; not so much when the bazooka is trained on our guy (or gal, as the case may be).
It is honestly difficult for me to empathize with your outrage when many commentors on this site (and others) spread baseless rumors about Obama for the past 18 months. Where was the call to “STOP” then, and just criticize his judgement or his policies? Where were you in 2000, when Bush operatives spread rumors that McCain fathered an illegitimate black child, or may have turned traitor in Vietnam?
Is Obama being passive-aggressive? Yep. Is the Obama’s job to go on some whistle-stop tour to save McCain-Palin? No. His job is to win the election. And McCain would do (and is doing) the same in his place. That’s hardball politics. McCain knew this was a risk. He knew that they would either sink or swim.
MJK: “When does ‘what happens in the bedroom is private’ happen again?”
Um, when the GOP VP candidate decides not to announce her daughter’s pregnancy to the national media…
Matton 03 Sep 2008 at 1:45 pm 27Oooh, Peggy Noonan, honey, make sure the mic is off next time:
According to a Politico story (with video tape!):
“It’s over,” said Noonan, and then responded to a question of whether Palin is the most qualified Republican woman McCain could have chosen.
“The most qualified? No. I think they went for this — excuse me — political bullshit about narratives,” she said. “Every time Republicans do that — because that’s not where they live and it’s not what they’re good at and they blow it.”
Murphy chimed in:
“The greatness of McCain is no cynicism, and this is cynical.”
wfon 03 Sep 2008 at 3:41 pm 28Matt,
you wrote I do not believe this should be an issue.
Then why are you babbling on for four more paragraphs?
Stephanieon 03 Sep 2008 at 3:44 pm 29Matt like other leftist bolshies likes to hear the sound of his own voice….maybe he imagines himself sounding like Obama? Hmmmmmmmmm
steevyon 03 Sep 2008 at 3:47 pm 30Matt think we are in deep despair because of Peggy Noonan…hehe
Rusty Jameson 03 Sep 2008 at 3:50 pm 31Johnny Ed’s Baby: “Lets see Obama call out the hate coming from the kos crazies.”
Of course there is no greater opponent of attacking the children of politicians than Johnny Ed’s Baby.
Do they even have irony where you’re from.
romanon 03 Sep 2008 at 4:29 pm 32What a joke. Next post: a scathing critique on the two-faced nature of GOP punditry.
Leo Grinon 03 Sep 2008 at 4:40 pm 33Peggy Noonan’s column a “big fat lie”? “Shame on her”? “Disgraceful”? Oh, come on — nothing in that mic transcript contradicts the very real reservations about Palin she expressed in that column:
These gloomy column passages echo her offhand mic-captured comments more than a little. The column wasn’t anything close to a wholehearted endorsement of the Palin pick — it guardedly acknowledges the massive excitement and potentially transformational upside of McCain’s choice, while also soberly contemplating the perilous, potentially fatal downside. You can certainly argue that her column would have benefited from including an unequivocal expression of her mic-captured opinion that the Hail Mary pass will in the end fail, instead of just exploring the many ways it could fail. But perhaps in the interim between the column and the on-mic comments her opinion had hardened into something less nebulous. Or did the mic comments actually come first (I don’t know — how old are they?), with her coming to a more neutral and guarded view during the writing of the piece a day or two later?
In any case, calling her column a “big fat lie” is a needlessly harsh and hyperbolic criticism of the writer of such sterling conservative books as When Character Was King: A Story of Ronald Reagan and John Paul the Great: Remembering a Spiritual Father. I urge everyone who hasn’t to go read those books, and then tell me again about how shamed and disgraced Peggy Noonan should feel about the perceived, arguable differences between a single newspaper column and a few throwaway television comments.
Tommy Von 03 Sep 2008 at 4:41 pm 34I am sorry Peggy is down on Palin, but does anyone suggest that she is the most qualified?
No. That’s the point.
It’s not about how long her resume is, but what she has done on the jobs she has had.
If McCain wanted the most qualified on paper does anyone assert that he would pick Palin?
While I think saying its only about narrative is clearly a cynical interpretation, it truly misses the point of who this woman is.
I’m a nice Texas boy and I gotta say that I would much rather have Palin than Hutchinson. Hutchinson is definitely old school. You could argue she is more “qualified” than Palin, but I don’t think for a second Hutchinson could get more done.
I don’t buy that for a second.
I think Noonan is being overly protective of her friend KB Hutchinson.
Leo Grinon 03 Sep 2008 at 5:05 pm 35And here we have Peggy Noonan posting a very thoughtful and illuminating explanation of her on-air comments, one that demonstrates she indeed was thinking things through between her column and her TV appearance, just as I suspected in my last post:
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/declarations.html
Dirty Harry, please note specifically her cogent and convincing explanation of her “It’s over” comment, and perhaps consider posting an update of your own to this “big fat lie…shame on her…disgraceful” post of yours. Of all the people in the world for a conservative to pick to drag across the coals of knee-jerk blog outrage. Goddam.
Buck Turgidsonon 03 Sep 2008 at 5:36 pm 36Leo:
Thanks for the link.
Conan O'Lenomanon 03 Sep 2008 at 6:44 pm 37I read her explanation and think she too suffers from the “inside the beltway” mentality she writes about. She has a right to her own opinions…mostly I agree but not this time. Everyone in the media is weighing in on who Mac should have picked, but it is HIS choice. and I, for one, like his choice. A lot.
Stephanieon 03 Sep 2008 at 6:47 pm 38I think your right Conan because a lot of these people don’t know teh rest of teh country. Or voters. She regards Reagan in this huge way and yet she doesn’t understand he was more like me and you than her. Thats why he resonated so well. Ronnie was one of us. Sara Palin is one of us. John McCain in his own way is one of us. Barack Obama has no clue, and neither does Peggy Noonan.
Conan O'Lenomanon 03 Sep 2008 at 7:01 pm 39Stephanie:
I suspect we are going to hear a few “conservative” voices questioning this choice. I am bracing myself. But republicans are not monolithic in thought. We don’t always agree on everything. That’s ok. They are all talking heads anyway, the usual suspects trotted out to pontificate on politics and get paid for it. But this woman, Palin, seems special to me. She has that X-factor. Kind of like Obimbo. but REAL.
Whoops, gotta go. There’s the Palin family.
Conan O'Lenomanon 03 Sep 2008 at 7:17 pm 40I betcha most of us folks on here could do an adequate job as a talking head, at least as good as Mort Kondrake! I cannot remember one memorable thing he has ever said.
Leo Grinon 03 Sep 2008 at 7:41 pm 41Stephanie says:
You clearly haven’t read When Character Was King.
Mike Kriskeyon 03 Sep 2008 at 9:13 pm 42Matt:
A shorter way to phrase this would be: “Hate the sin, love the sinner.”
TallDaveon 04 Sep 2008 at 7:15 pm 43“the conservative movement has been, for years, lambasting unwed, teenage mothers and the deviant culture that celebrates them. Lo, and behold, the presumptive GOP VP finds herself saddled with an unwed, pregnant teen”
Dude. She’s getting married. That’s what the GOP has been saying pregnant teens should do — and there are many, many, many studies that agree this is by far the best thing for the child and mother.
Anyways, that’s just b.s. rationalization of what the MSM want to do for wholly partisan reasons. When John Edwards had an affair, no one said “Well, he has opinions on abortion, so we need to investigate his mistress’ pregnancy!” The MSM embargoed it for months and months, just like they spiked the Monica Lewinsky story (it was leaked to Drudge from Newsweek post-spike)..