Peggy Noonan jumps into the blogosphere

Last updated on: September 30, 2016 at 5:05 pm by Deacon Greg Kandra

Peggy Noonan jumps into the blogosphere 2016-09-30T17:05:12-04:00 Deacon Greg Kandra

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I noticed this the other day, and wondered when she had started blogging. I presume it was just in time for the conventions. Politico notes:

Out the gate, Noonan’s actually proven to have a great knack for the medium — mix of opinion and reporting, first-person informal, relatively frequent. Not bad for a 61-year-old veteran of the long form.

She does have a knack for it, and is bringing her usual deft touch to writing about the GOP convention in Tampa. Some snippets:

Mike Huckabee’s speech is the best of the convention so far. What a fabulous, old fashioned podium-thumper. He has been the only speaker tonight with the size to fill the room, the only one who can read a teleprompter without looking shifty-eyed, the only one with the confidence to go there at length on the meaning of such issues as the president and the Catholic church, and the only one who captured the full attention of the crowd. Just a wonderful speech about the meaning of things. Out of the park.

And this:

Ann Romney was stunning, sweet, full of enthusiasm, a little shy, a little game for the battle. Her speech was fine. I think the headline was that she and Mitt got married young, lived in modest circumstances and struggled a bit while he studied and tried to get a foothold in business. But it was scattered, full of declarations — “Tonight I want to talk to you about love” — that weren’t built upon but abandoned. Strong as the impression of personal beauty is, I think she missed an opportunity.

Here’s how I see it. I have just spent the past two and a half days talking to people who’ve known Mitt Romney well for ten, twenty and thirty years, even more. They love him, and in all their conversations they say either literally or between the lines, “If only you knew him like I do.” It is their mantra. They mean it, and they are so frustrated. They believe he is a person of unique and natural integrity, a kind man who will give you not only his money but his time, his energy. They see him as a leader. They know the public doesn’t see this. They don’t understand why. And, actually, I don’t blame them, because it really is a bit of a mystery. If he’s so good why can’t his goodness be communicated?

The opportunity Ann Romney missed was to provide first person testimony that is new, that hasn’t been spoken, that hasn’t been in the books and the magazine articles. She failed to make it new and so she failed to make it real.

I’m not sure her speech was a loss but it doesn’t feel like a gain. We’ll see. The real reaction to a highly publicized speech emerges not overnight on twitter but over days and weeks as people chat in the office and on the sidewalk in front of school. So we’ll see what they say, we’ll see how it bubbles up.

She’s pretty fair-minded when it comes to analyzing political rhetoric. I can’t wait to see what she says about the Democrats.

Meantime, I think she’s worth a bookmark.

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