Peggy Noonan says it best

Damn, I hate to admit admiration for the opposition.   But, when she is at her best, Peggy Noonan is the best wordsmith in the political world.  She first became known as a speech writer for Ronald Reagen, including his response to the explosion of the Challenger space ship.  That speech was deemed one of the 10 best political speeches of the 20th century by a group of professors who compile such lists.  She later wrote some of George H. W. Bush's best lines:  "a kinder, gentler nation," " a thousand points of light," and "read my lips;  no new taxes."   Now a Wall Street Journal editorial columnist, she is a frequent guest on Sunday morning news shows.

She has weighted in -- quite heavily, I would say -- on the Romney debacle in her WSJ column.   Headlined "Time for an Intervention," she hits hard but offers a solution.  Saying that he needs to look "deep into the abyss [of] a Republican defeat in a year the Republican presidential candidate almost couldn't lose."

"And then he needs to snap out of it, and move. 

"He has got seven weeks.  He’s just had two big flubs. On the Mideast he seemed like a political opportunist, not big and wise but small and tinny. It mattered because the crisis was one of those moments when people look at you and imagine you as president."

 Then concerning his comments released last night from the secret video made months ago at the private fundraiser . . .

"This is not how big leaders talk, it’s how shallow campaign operatives talk: They slice and dice the electorate like that, they see everything as determined by this interest or that. . ."

Noonan continues:

"Romney’s theory of the case is all wrong. . . . That’s not how Republicans emerge victorious—”I can’t win these guys.” You have to have more respect than that, and more affection, you don’t write anyone off, you invite everyone in. . . You know what Romney sounded like? Like a kid new to politics who thinks he got the inside lowdown on how it works. . . . 

"I think there is a broad and growing feeling now, among Republicans, that this thing is slipping out of Romney’s hands. . . .  Republicans are going to have to right this thing. They have to stabilize it.

"It’s time to admit the Romney campaign is an incompetent one. It’s not big, it’s not brave, it’s not thoughtfully tackling great issues. It’s always been too small for the moment. . . .

And then:

An intervention is in order. “Mitt, this isn’t working" . . .

"Time for the party to step up. Romney should go out there every day surrounded with the most persuasive, interesting and articulate members of his party . . .  I mean he should be surrounded by a posse of them every day. Their presence will say, “This isn’t about one man, this is about a whole world of meaning, this is about a conservative political philosophy that can turn things around and make our country better” . . .

"Party elders, to the extent you exist this is why you exist:  Right this ship."

I've left out about half her column, much of it having to do with advice that Romney probably won't take.  But damn if she's not persuasive -- and I'm sure she wrote this intending to be, not just persuasive of Romney, but of those party elders who respect her and know she knows what she's talking about.

Let's hope they don't follow her advice.  It's the only way they call pull Romney out of this sure defeat.

Ralph