Yup. As a box of hammers. She wrote a mystified Op-Ed about Obama:
He Was Supposed to Be CompetentI have to say that I don't much follow Powerline any more - it's a bit too conservative for my tastes, which run more towards Insty's this-country-would-be-better-off-with-hapily-married-gay-couples-with-closets-filled-with-assault-weapons. But hey, that's just me. There's no denying that the gents over there are indeed wicked smaht, and they bring the condescension in 55 gallon drums: Why would anyone have expected competence?
What is curious is that quite a few people did think that Obama would be an especially competent president. Why? What evidence was there that Obama would be a skillful administrator? Before becoming president, he had never in his life run anything more substantial than a Senate staff. His executive experience was closer to zero than that of any president in memory.In fact, the only president with an equally thin administrative resume was Jack Kennedy*, and he almost got us into World War III, and did get us into Vietnam.
So to the question of Peggy. Her article is, in fact, packed to overflowing with smart. So how can she be dumb as a box of hammers? Because she just put her naiveté on display for all to see. She bought the smoke and mirrors, the unicorns playing underneath the rainbows, the whole sham. Obama was, of course, a member of her own Intellectual Elite class, and she was dumb to give him a pass because of that, but dumber to tell us that she had.
Peggy, please take a seat in the back next to David Brooks.
* Jerry Ford was an exception. He never would have been elected President in the first place, as the election of 1976 demonstrates.
Ole' Peggy is taking a well deserved beating for her article. She, along with some other so called conservatives, assured us that Obama would be much cooler, much smarter, and much better at dealing with other nations than that cranky Old McCain.
ReplyDeleteAll of the chattering class suffer from total insulation from reality. As a result we got a totally unqualified poseur and thug in the White House.
We'll be suffering for years because of this.
To twist the phrase one more time. For her to be so smart, Peggy Noonan sure is stupid.
ReplyDeleteI think you may have confused a rhetorical statement for her own belief. She is not an Obama supporter, nor is she truly stymied by his stumbling since she lists three examples that show a clear pattern of presidential incompetence. Her title statement expresses the conviction of the liberals who voted him in--saying, in effect, if he IS so competent, as the Left kept telling us, why is he clearly working without a plan?
ReplyDeleteIt's a challenge to his centrist supporters to explain THIS one. I thought it was a very good piece.