Poor, poor, pitiful Peggy

Last week I said that Peggy Noonan’s “present extravagant denunciation of Obama and prediction of his political ruin can be seen as a reaction against her earlier irrational support for him. From one extreme to the other. So it is with a thought process based on emotion.”

When I wrote that, I had forgotten just how extravagant Noonan’s earlier support for Obama had been, and how painfully embarrassing the actual course of his presidency must be to her, not to mention to her reputation as a pundit. As Roger Kimball reminds us (while politely keeping his Schadenfreude in check), Noonan wrote in summer 2008:

He has within him the possibility to change the direction and tone of American foreign policy, which need changing; his rise will serve as a practical rebuke to the past five years, which need rebuking; his victory would provide a fresh start in a nation in which a fresh start would come as a national relief. He climbed steep stairs, born off the continent with no father to guide, a dreamy, abandoning mother, mixed race, no connections. He rose with guts and gifts. He is steady, calm, and, in terms of the execution of his political ascent, still the primary and almost only area in which his executive abilities can be discerned, he shows good judgment in terms of whom to hire and consult, what steps to take and moves to make. We witnessed from him this year something unique in American politics: He took down a political machine without raising his voice.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at June 01, 2010 10:26 AM | Send