Being Peggy Noonan

Peggy Noonan of the Wall Street Journal wrote these words of Sarah Palin's "debate" performance:

"She killed. She had him at 'Nice to meet you. Hey, can I call you Joe?' She was the star. He was the second male lead, the good-natured best friend of the leading man. She was not petrified but peppy.

The whole debate was about Sarah Palin. She is not a person of thought but of action. Interviews are about thinking, about reflecting, marshaling data and integrating it into an answer. Debates are more active, more propelled—they are thrust and parry. They are for campaigners. She is a campaigner. Her syntax did not hold, but her magnetism did. At one point she literally winked at the nation.

As far as Mrs. Palin was concerned, Gwen Ifill was not there, and Joe Biden was not there. Sarah and the camera were there. This was classic "talk over the heads of the media straight to the people," and it is a long time since I've seen it done so well, though so transparently. There were moments when she seemed to be doing an infomercial pitch for charm in politics. But it was an effective infomercial."

Can someone please pass the pipe that Peggy Noonan is smoking? No, not really. But this foolishness has to stop! Is Palin in line for the presidency or the position of a salesperson selling lipstick for that proverbial pig? I had decided not to even respond to Sarah Palin's disastrous debate performance. That's right! DISASTROUS! Every time Palin will step out as president or vice president, she will be essentially both debating policy and being interviewed, nationally and internationally.

Palin's performance was disastrous considering the office she aspires and many others too. Imagine her going in for an interview or having a discussion with senior management and saying, "I will not answer the question in the way you want them. I will instead answer in the way I have rehearsed them?" Would you hire someone like that? Would you also hire someone who was not a thinker? Would you keep someone like that? What is Noonan implying here? Is good judgment not essential for the highest office in the land? In good judgment rational thought precedes action. Otherwise, actions are erratic, non-consequential and detrimental.

Palin is not impressive merely because she did better than expected from a purely syntactical standpoint. (Most feared she could not even put a coherent sentence together out of the sight of a teleprompter.) When I heard Ms. Noonan on Meet the Press today talking about the brilliance of Palin's performance during the debate, I wanted to barf! I became sick all over again. "At one point she literally winked at the nation." WHAT IS NOONAN TALKING ABOUT? If being coy, obstinate, misinformed, egotistical, cutesy and sly ("Hey, can I call you Joe?" set up to the "say it ain't so, Joe?") is brilliance, do pass that pipe I turned down before. In fact, we're all gonna need it. If this was a fix, we're all gonna need a whole lot of fixing. The real problem is by this VP selection it appears that it is believed that we are already fixed, completely out of it, whacked!

How does Peggy Noonan even write such words, let alone repeat them on live TV? The very words themselves seem so incredibly sexist. Imagine the same words written of a man. He would be the laughing stock of all of Washington and the world. Is there a double standard here? Are women such as Noonan perpetuating such standards? Why does Ms. Noonan find such words to be flattery? They are most embarrassing. Coming from a veteran female journalist these words are shameful stuff, especially considering that Sarah Palin could be the President of the United States come January should John McCain be elected and unable to fulfill his duty.

We do not care about Palin's personality, her likability, her teenage daughter's pregnancy (though, I dare to say that if Palin were a woman of color the spin might be different), her looks, her appeal by and large to Joe-six pack, etc. Has anybody thought of the ridiculousness of the Joe six-pack image being associated with the most unlikely Joe-six pack woman imaginable? (Palin is to the right of the religious right which forbids the consumption of alcohol.) The only connection here with Joe six-pack must be the feeling which has less to do with his cerebral head, but more with his sensational one. With all the winking, she was more akin to a "peppy" pinup.

What we care about is whether Palin is prepared to step into the shoes of the President of the United States should she be required to do so. What does she know about the economy, foreign policy, the diverse people and varied ideologies of our country (it's obvious she doesn't read periodicals), the Constitution, or the role of the vice-president? It was clear she did not know much beyond her Cliff Notes. (Remember cramming in college and how fast you forgot that stuff over the next few days?) In this regard, the debate, which wasn't a debate at all, but a press conference without the press, was a complete DISASATER on Palin's part.

Peggy Noonan knows this.