The 82+ Peggy Noonan Quotes

Some Of The Stupidest Brilliant People Who Ever Lived.

[on President Clinton's Address:] It Was The Worst Inaugural Address Of Our Lifetime, And I Think The Only Controversy Will Be Between Those Who Say It Was Completely And Utterly Banal And Those Who Say, 'well, Not Completely And Utterly.

The 2008 Election Settled Nothing, Not Even For A While. Our National Politics Are Reflecting What Appears To Be Going On Geologically, On The Bottom Of The Oceans And Beneath The Crust Of The Earth: The Tectonic Plates Are Moving.

I Love Eulogies. They Are The Most Moving Kind Of Speech Because They Attempt To Pluck Meaning From The Fog, And On Short Order, When The Emotions Are Still Ragged And Raw And Susceptible To Leaps.

No News Conferences? Interviews Now Only With Friendly Journalists? You Can't Be President Or Vice President And Govern In That Style, As A Sequestered Figure. This Has Been Mr. Bush's Style The Past Few Years, And See Where It Got Us. You Must Address America In Its Entirety, Not As A Sliver Or A Series Of Slivers But As A Full And Whole Entity, A Great Nation Trying To Hold Together. When You Don't, When You Play Only To Your Little Piece, You Contribute To Its Fracturing.

Mr. Bush Has Squandered The Hard-built Paternity Of 40 Years. But So Has The Party, And So Have Its Leaders. If They Had Pushed Away For Serious Reasons, They Could Have Separated The Party's Fortunes From The President's. This Would Have Left A Painfully Broken Party, But They Wouldn't Be Left With A Ruined Brand,- As They All Say, Speaking The Language Of Marketing. And They Speak That Language Because They Are Marketers, Not Thinkers. Not Serious About Policy. Not Serious About Ideas. And Not Serious About Leadership, Only Followership.

When Everyone In America Knows You're In A Dreadful Position, Admit You're In A Dreadful Position. Don't Lie About It And Make Them Roll Their Eyes, Tell The Truth And Make Them Blink.

Speeches Are Not Magic And There Is No Great Speech Without Great Policy.

There Should Be A Name For This, For The Process Whereby One Knows One Is Being Yanked And Concedes It Has Been Done Successfully - That One Is Grateful To Have Been Spun. In The Theater, It Is Called The Willing Suspension Of Disbelief. That's What Allows The Play To Make An Impact On The Audience: They Have To Be Able To Make Believe That What's Happening On The Stage Is Really Happening. Maybe To A Degree It Is A Requirement For All Political Participation, All Effective Political Communication, Too.

I Should Say Here, Because Some In Washington Like To Dream Up Ways To Control The Internet, That We Don't Need To 'control' Free Speech, We Need To Control Ourselves.

Resentment Isn't A Magnetic Personal Style.

The Irish Are Often Nervous About Having The Appropriate Face For The Occasion. They Have To Be Happy At Weddings, Which Is A Strain, So They Get Depressed; They Have To Be Sad At Funerals, Which Is Easy, So They Get Happy.