Peggy Noonan's Latest Blathering

Peggy Noonan has, I think, finally gone around the bend and become completely irrelevant. Her column in this weekend's Wall Street Journal demonstrated, for anyone still in doubt, how entrenched and narrow-minded she has become as a Washington insider, in perspective, if not geographically.

Among the nastier passages regarding Sarah Palin, the focus of her "Palin's Failin'" editorial, are these,

"There has never been a second's debate among liberals, to use an old-fashioned word that may yet return to vogue, over Mrs. Palin: She was a dope and unqualified from the start. Conservatives and Republicans, on the other hand, continue to battle it out: Was her choice a success or a disaster? And if one holds negative views, should one say so? For conservatives in general, but certainly for writers, the answer is a variation on Edmund Burke: You owe your readers not your industry only but your judgment, and you betray instead of serve them if you sacrifice it to what may or may not be their opinion.

But we have seen Mrs. Palin on the national stage for seven weeks now, and there is little sign that she has the tools, the equipment, the knowledge or the philosophical grounding one hopes for, and expects, in a holder of high office. She is a person of great ambition, but the question remains: What is the purpose of the ambition?

Her supporters accuse her critics of snobbery: Maybe she's not a big "egghead" but she has brilliant instincts and inner toughness. But what instincts?

In the end the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics. It's no good, not for conservatism and not for the country. And yes, it is a mark against John McCain, against his judgment and idealism."

In my opinion, Noonan is simply off her rocker. Why Noonan wrote glowingly of Harry Truman, but savages the equally-unknown and inexpressive Palin is beyond me. Except, of course, if you simply write Noonan off as a beltway veteran.

And I do.

After all, nobod knew who Truman was upon his nomination. Roosevelt never even spoke with him personally. Truman's only managerial experience was his failed clothing store in Kansas City.

How else to explain her preference for that idiot, "Lying Joe" Biden, over Palin, as a potential President?

Biden has been a wrong-headed moron with too many years in our temple to Windbaggery, the US Senate. He's done nothing.

Palin has been an executive of real governments. One municipal, one state. Hard work, if you want it.

In case Noonan has forgotten, Vice-Presidents are typically chosen for a reason other than being qualified to be President. Like it or not, that's the truth.

The first reason is typically to attract a key segment of the voting population which eludes the Presidential candidate. The next reason would be some particular theme, as in Palin's case.

Noonan simply dismisses anything outside the Beltway now. Even the freshman Senator from Illinois is okay with her, evidently because he stumbled into a Senate seat only two years ago.

How can anyone criticize Palin as unfit to be President, yet give the Illinois rookie a pass?

This, alone, I contend, marks Noonan as a washed-up has been in business of political commentary. If she's not biased, then she's just lost all perspective, judgment and common sense.