Where has Peggy Noonan been?

"Even in this room full of proud Manhattan Democrats, I can't shake that feeling that some people here are pulling for me," quipped a crowd-pleasing John McCain at last night's 63rd annual Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner/Roast to benefit Catholic charities, pausing for maximum comic effect before turning with a melodramatic show of affection toward Senator Hillary's table to deliver a punchline that left HIllary (above) and assembled A-list guests rolling in the aisles:  "I'm delighted to see you here tonight Hillary." McCain's perfect comic timing and razor-sharp material left Obama's lame offering in the dust. Our fave joke of the night: "The press is really an independent-minded, civic-minded, non-partisan group … like Acorn."

"More than ever on the campaign trail, the candidates are dropping their G's," writes an exasperated Peggy Noonan in the WSJ:

Hardworkin' families are strainin' and tryin'a get ahead. It's not only Sarah Palin but Mr. McCain, too, occasionally Mr. Obama, and, of course, George W. Bush when he darts out like the bird in a cuckoo clock to tell us we are in crisis. All of the candidates say "mom and dad": "our moms and dads who are struggling." This is Mr. Bush's former communications adviser Karen Hughes's contribution to our democratic life, that you cannot speak like an adult in politics now, that's too austere and detached, snobby. No one can say mothers and fathers, it's all now the faux down-home, patronizing — and infantilizing — moms and dads. Do politicians ever remember that in a nation obsessed with politics, our children — sorry, our kids — look to political figures for a model as to how adults sound?

We couldn't agree more re the toe-curling G-dropping, moms-and-dads infantilization of the language that pollutes the public square [Who knew it was all Karen Hughes's doing? … We would have said Oprah!), but political figures as a model for adult behavior? No, Peggy, no. Again the Northeast Corridor Conservative in her starts off on the right foot re Thursday's debate [cf. our own post, "Obama unmasked"]:

[McCain] also scored Mr. Obama on his eloquence, using it against him more effectively than Hillary Clinton ever did. When she said he was "just words," it sounded like a bitter complaint. Mr. McCain made it a change: Young man, you attempt to obscure truth with the mellifluous power of your words.

… but then goes off the track in her conclusions:

From Mrs. Clinton it sounded jealous, but when Mr. McCain said it, you looked at Mr. Obama and wondered if you'd just heard something that was true. For the first time, Mr. Obama's unruffled demeanor didn't really work for him. His cool made him seem hidden.

"For the first time"? Where has Peggy Noonan been? We had Barack Obama's number way back in December of 2006, when the smooth-talkin' hope-and-changester, in the wake of Oprah's ecstatic endorsement, got away with calling us a racist while our fellow Americans from the other side of the aisle and their media enablers were being distracted by "thrills up their legs."

Update: What comes to mind? Check out Dr. Sanity's Carnival of the Insanities for your therapeutic needs.

Comments

[goomp]

Let us hope more Amercans can see the shallowness of Obama and the depth of McCain.

[paul]

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[S. Weasel]

She's upset about moms and dads? Here I thought she was miffed on behalf of Christopher Buckley, whose Obama endorsement in the Daily Beast -- the one that got him in trouble with NR -- mentioned more than once his "mum and pup." Mum and pup. Infantile AND patrician, all rolled into one.

I tasted bile for an hour afterward.

[Laura Lee Donoho]

You've had Ms. Noonan's number since 2005 Sissy. I haven't linked to her for a couple of years because she seemed to be going wobbly.

The appearance of new blood in the long red line of the GOP is thrilling for common Americans to see but it threatens the likes of the Noonans, the Buckleys, and others who have coasted too long on the backs of all of us who really care about the direction our country is going.

To jump ship at a time like this shows us their lack of true seriousness.

[kimsch]

I've always felt that the junior senator from my state speaks "lazily". He seems to say Merca instead of America. Mercans instead of Americans. There are other words too. The only way I can describe it is that he speaks lazily...

[Donna B.]

Havin' been born in the West and raised in the South, the extraneous "g" is unrelated to the meaning. If a hanging is different from a hangin' let me know how :-)

I can speak an unaccented "nowhere" accent fully and properly accentuating all vowels and consonants. But why bother? Folks around here would just think I was pretentious (and I would be) and folks elsewhere would think I was pretentious. Again, as a I would be.

It's funny to me because I can pretty much imitate any accent and pronunciation. Thus, it's meaningless to me. I do me a damn good Scots as well as a Mexican immigrant English. Cockney and German are not out of my range either.

"G's", dropped or pronounced don't begin to cover the "meanings".

[Sissy Willis]

Great point, Donna B. It's the faux folksiness of public personalities that makes my toes curl. Hillary's phony southern accent when she's talking down to the little people comes to mind.

[Teresa]

People trying to be something they aren't always leads to them looking foolish. (didn't Hillary attempt "southern" with quite disastrous results?) It comes across as condescending unless it's very very well done.

But even with a great message - I find it grates on the nerves. Of the 4 front runners - Sarah Palin is the only one who can pull it off without looking like she's talking down to people - even then - it's hard to listen to at times.

But what do I know - I found it difficult to listen to Reagan speak back in the day. Not that I disliked Reagan (quite the opposite) but political speech always gets on my last nerve. I'd rather read it.

[Donna B.]

This is quite amazing that it's difficult for some to listen to an accent (and that's really all it is) that differs from their native one.

This is a big country and there are all sorts of accents. I think, being raised by southerners in the west and best friends with a German immigrant and surrounded by Mexican Spanish, that I developed a non-discriminating ear.

Living in Louisiana and hearing the Brooklynese of "native" dock workers in New Orleans gives you an idea that an accent is cultural, but not necessarily political.

Those who try to fake it are laughed at, no matter what they're trying to fake. Obama and Hillary are the only two I've heard trying to fit their accents and manner of speaking to their audience.

Obama is the worst because of his use of buzzwords as well as a fake accent when he's speaking to an all-black audience. Remember his invocation of "bamboozle" in S. Carolina?

I gagged.