|
|
June 9, 2005Noonan holds a mirror to Clinton and DeanPeggy Noonan is asking the Democrats a simple question: How would you feel if someone talked like this about you?. Noonan takes excerpts from recent red-meat speeches by both Dean and Clinton and pulls the old switcheroo: She changes the words “Republican” to “Democrat” and “right” to “left” and asks the Democrats if that is really how they mean to sound about 1/2 of the nation. It’s an effective tool. Parents use it all the time when they’re trying to reach an out-of-control child. I almost wish Noonan had also included Hillary’s “vast right-wing conspiracy” line in her switch. “There is a vast, left-wing conspiracy…” If President Bush uttered those words, a new meme would instantly be created, the “Bush is completely paranoid and unfit for office,” meme. Which, I guess, would accompany the new “Bush is Nixon” meme the left is currently in the process of constructing. Nixon, you will recall, was characterized as “paranoid,” too, while somehow Hillary has managed to escape that characterization, but I digress. Had Noonan really wanted to push a hot button, (which clearly she doesn’t) she might have also switched Dean’s remarks about “Christians” to “Jews.” That would have caused a huge hullaballo, of course. Democrats would assume that Noonan was comparing Howard Dean’s extreme rhetoric (delivered to a defeated tribe that is desperate to feel powerful and looking for an enemy to hate and to vanquish so they may feel better about themselves) to the rhetoric of another shortish, stumpy-armed man with a gutteral yell. That would offend their delicate sensibilites. Rep. Charles Rangle just compared the president’s foreign policy to the holocaust, and bloggers are routinely visited by commenters (or other bloggers) doing a “You’re all Nazis!” driveby, and they do it with impunity. No one in the press calls them on it. Actually, since Dean’s remarks about Christians, they’re stepping up on those attacks, as we see here. Dean has been off the rails for a while, so his rhetoric is not terribly surprising. What is surprising is Hillary joining in for the choruses. Hillary is not a stupid woman - she must realize that Dean is characterizing the whole Democratic party as intolerant, incoherent, bigoted and out-of-control, and that with very little effort she could credibly become the “healing voice of moderation” within the Democrat party - which she will have to be, if she wants to win the White House. But I guess she figures she has time for that, later…and so right now she’s indulging in a little fun - she’s like a dieter who is almost at her goal weight and figures she can indulge in a spot of cheesecake and a bit of creme brulee’ because she’s almost there…the last ten pounds won’t take much work. Of course, every dieter knows that once you start sucking down the truffles, you soon have a “last 15 lbs” to lose. And then a “last twenty” and suddenly you’re much farther away from your goal than you had been. Hillary, indulging her sweet-tooth of conservative-bashing, is backtracking, not moving forward. Perhaps, with her life’s ambition so tantalizingly close, the temptation to satisfy her craving, particularly when a crowd is urging her on, it must seem so natural, and so satisfying…like coming home. I’m wondering if the thing that undoes Hillary will not be some vast conspiracy, but rather her own excitement at what she can taste and feel and see happening all around her, within her party - I wonder if it will make her lose control and expose herself in some unrecoverable way. The groundswell of support for her presidential candidacy, the hate rhetoric throbbing up from some deep spot better left unexplored, the fact that Democrats can say pretty much anything they like at this point, with no accountability, this all has to be terribly, terribly exciting for her. The temptation to really enter into some of it and enjoy it must be huge and tantalizing. If you have spent decades holding it all inside you, reining in your inner-lion, your inner-predator, and you see another lion getting away with an attack…it has to whet your own appetite, it has to make you want to break free of the handlers and enjoy an attack of your own. So, perhaps Hillary is not a dieter at all, but a well-fed, well-groomed, carefully handled circus lion who is weary of the big-tent discipline and tired of living in a cage next to the baaing lambs, pretending she does not want to eat them, pretending, in fact, that she can find “common ground” with them. If a handler leaves a cage door open, and she thinks she can bite a lamb or two without fear of reprisal, she might do it. Because she wants to, so very badly. She has watched those damn lambs for years, wishing she could have a chance at them. But once she tastes the lamb, she may not be able to control herself, or maintain the illusion that she is a controlled lion, an higher-sort of lion than average. She might end up reverting to her nature. A lion is a lion. Finally let loose, she might not be able to stop herself from wreaking ferocious havoc on the lambs, to the utter terror of the viewing public and the horror of the handlers who had truly believed she had transcended her lion-hood and become something finer. She could lose it all if she cannot control her appetite, her instinct to go for the kill. Sigh. But then, it’s really late, and I have no idea what I’m writing. I’m tired. When I finally come back on line, this might end up hugely edited! UPDATE II: Betsy Newmark is also noting Noonan’s excellent piece, and adds her own typically lucid and straighforward insights to this subject. UPDATE: Bob Novak takes a random sampling and suggests Hillary does not have it all sewn up in Collyfornia. Michelle Malkin is wondering if he might not be right. Personally, with the money and press behind her, I don’t see how she can NOT be the nominee. Unless, as I say, she destroys herself. UPDATE: David Limbaugh has a very good column on this story, with a particularly interesting closing paragraph. http://theanchoressonline.com/2005/06/09/noonan-holds-a-mirror-to-clinton-and-dean/trackback/ 18 Responses to “Noonan holds a mirror to Clinton and Dean” |
June 9th, 2005 at 6:49 am
Ghost Dansing, It was interesting to read the argument you had with yourself. Do you always think out loud?
June 9th, 2005 at 6:56 am
Anchoress: DON’T. Change. One. Single. Word.
_____________
June 9th, 2005 at 8:16 am
The only editing that needs to be done is the self restraint of the dem leadership.
June 9th, 2005 at 8:51 am
No edits, please, Anchoress. I am coming to the belief that God gives you a clear vision of reality and the ability to state it well when you “type tired”. I get up and check every morning for what Wisdom kept you awake to say. Keep up the good work - and watch out for those lions.
June 9th, 2005 at 9:07 am
Just one little edit to change the name Rep. Charles Rangler to Rangel.
Love the blog.
June 9th, 2005 at 9:23 am
Heh. I was writing this at 4 in the morning. Typos abound…and at that hour I wasn’t thinking of Lambs as Christians. I was thinking of them as cute things lions like to eat.
Some commenters give me WAY too much credit!
June 9th, 2005 at 9:49 am
Peggy Noonan Article
Well worth reading. She imagines President Bush making this speech: Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. I want to speak this evening about how I see the political landscape. Let me jump right in. The struggle between the Republican Party and the Democrati…
June 9th, 2005 at 10:08 am
I just checked out the Michelle Malkin piece. Doesn’t it seem strange to anyone else that not even six months into a Presidential term and we’re already talking about the next Presidential race? For that matter, we were talking about it shortly after John Kerry conceded. I thought it was strange that Kerry started his run for President immediately after getting reelected as Senator in 2002. In any case, these constant election cycles cannot be healthy.
As for Hillary, I have never heard her make a speech in which she doesn’t sound either shrill or condescending, sometimes both.
June 9th, 2005 at 10:54 am
I just read about the German press indulging in unrestrained and unfair anti-Americanism ( David’s Mediakritik).
How did Hitler and the Nazis rise? By half true attacks against the “enemies”, and a focus on on-sided hate.
It’s clear to me that the Left is following the path of Hate — the PC thought Nazis are far more down the path than Bush.
And in reading your wonderful lion and lamb story, I wonder if Hitler didn’t get a whiff of being a Hate-Lion late in the 20s, and quickly become an addict to the taste of lambs. Like Hillary may do, following Dean.
June 9th, 2005 at 10:54 am
Dean and Clinton: The Rage Machine
Howard Dean and Mr. Hillary Clinton have more in common than just political affi
June 9th, 2005 at 11:01 am
One quibble:
“the fact that Democrats can say pretty much anything they like at this point, with no accountability…” reflects the atavistic carry-over in-denial mindset of certain public figures that their words won’t be marked, recorded, compared, and published in blogs and news portals when ignored by MSM. They know consciously they are exposed everywhere, but haven’t viscerally understood it. So Hillary’s self-indulgence may be more “caloric” than she yet realizes, polemic Gorgonzola falsely labelled fat-free yoghurt.
It’s difficult for anyone to keep herself and her attitudes veiled 100% of the time. There is a bipartisan cadre of blogging-Goodalls, set to wait and listen, dusk after dusk, at the water hole where the predators gather.
June 9th, 2005 at 11:38 am
I just joined the Coalition of the Chillin’ and would like some input on my homepage. Just click my name and it will take you there.
June 9th, 2005 at 12:24 pm
Yep, Anchoress, and I have a rack of lamb to cook tonight…
Lamb chops - mmmmmm…
June 9th, 2005 at 12:51 pm
I think the metaphor with lions is too good for the Democrats. They behave more like hyenas or jackals…
June 9th, 2005 at 12:54 pm
I tend to believe… I’d really *like* to believe that Dean, Hillary et al are weak and stupid for lashing out in such an undisciplined fashion. I also like the lamb/lion binge-diet metaphors. That said, I have this nagging hunch that there’s an appetite in this country (as evidenced by where popular media is going), for extremism - of any kind… maybe better to call it demagoguery - that’s attractive and yet that the governing party is always going to be handdicapped in fulfilling.
June 9th, 2005 at 1:42 pm
What to think when smart people say outrageously stupid things on purpose? I suppose in this instance, both Dean and Clinton must think that they are appealing to the nuttier parts of the Dem base. Dean tried this strategy before, and it merely proved that he was unelectable. HRC probably judges that 08 is far enough out that she can afford to throw a little red meat to the nuts. Perhaps, but it’s a dangerous strategy when you already have a “likeability” problem.
To the extent that this surliness hits the radar screen of the average voter, I think that most of us just shrug. Dean’s a nut and Hillary tends to be a rhymes with witch. Neither can be taken too seriously.
June 9th, 2005 at 2:02 pm
I was surprised to see Dean on the Today show yesterday (or perhaps the day before) being asked to defend his statements. He did a poor job of it too, in my opinion. Matt Lauer did not appear too impressed by Dean, either, although I might be reading that wrong.
June 9th, 2005 at 2:46 pm
I watched Empire Falls on HOB last weekend, and Joanne Woodward’s character made me think of Hillary - cold, calculating and selfish.
One line best described her (I paraphrase)… she doesn’t know love, but she understands its power.
And we see how she can use a son’s love for his mother to manipulate him.
It the Hilbeast….