Peggy and Sarah

Peggy Noonan, Bush I's speech writer (1000 points of light) and conservative pundit, does not share some of her fellow conservatives' view of Sarah Palin (eg, Bill Krystol). During the campaign, she made a comment unknowingly picked up by an open mike: she referred to McCain's choice of Palin for VP running mate as "political bullshit." She later tried to spin it into something not quite so bad.

But now she apparently feels no such constraints. In a current editorial in The Wall Street Journal, Noonan recently wrote this about Palin:

In television interviews she was out of her depth in a shallow pool. She was limited in her ability to explain and defend her positions, and sometimes in knowing them. She couldn't say what she read because she didn't read anything. She was utterly unconcerned by all this and seemed in fact rather proud of it: It was evidence of her authenticity. She experienced criticism as both partisan and cruel because she could see no truth in any of it. She wasn't thoughtful enough to know she wasn't thoughtful enough. Her presentation up to the end has been scattered, illogical, manipulative and self-referential to the point of self-reverence. "I'm not wired that way," "I'm not a quitter," "I'm standing up for our values." I'm, I'm, I'm.

In another age it might not have been terrible, but here and now it was actually rather horrifying.

I've not liked some of the things Noonan has said, but she's got it just right here -- even with a memorable line: "out of her depth in a shallow pool."

That's both searingly true and aesthetically pleasing.

Ralph