A few notes from tonight's program with Peggy Noonan in no particular order.

                                            

- As I said tonight and have written on the blog several times, I am partial to Peggy Noonan.  I find her thoughtful, well reasoned and very insightful.  That my buddy Gil Gross said I "gushed" backstage is funny to me.  That's probably true, and I will be open in my bias for her.  So take that for what it is.  That said, I found her talk to be all of those things, and her delivery is simply poetic.  We have had three other speakers that I think fall into that category: Ken Burns, Maya Angelou and Doris Kearns Goodwin.

- I thought it was interesting that she said she didn't think the President should lower himself to the level of the Congress because President Obama is being hailed,it seems, for doing just that in his televised meetings with House and Senate leaders.  Noonan and I discussed this after the speech.  She clarified that the televised sessions are good for President Obama from a political standpoint because the President, no matter who he/she is, will always win a rhetorical battle with Congress.  Congress, after all, is a somewhat nebulous body by nature.  Nonetheless, from where I sit, Noonan stands in stark contrast to others in the dominant media who praise the President precisely for the very act of "lowering himself" as it were, regardless of whether he is effective in the discourse (and make no mistake that he is).

- She talked about President Obama being a compelling figure, more so than either his rhetoric or policies.  Certainly, public opinion research currently bears this out.  However, that same analysis was endlessly made of Noonan's old boss, President Reagan, whose likability stood in occasional contrast to the public opinion of his policies.  This, in many ways is the chief criticism of Reagan.  Is Reagan, therefore, more similar to Obama in style and circumstance than Reagan-partisans care to admit?  Time will tell, but perhaps it's something to ponder.

- Peggy Noonan is a portrait of grace who comes across in person just as she does in print and on stage.  Her tremendous intellect belies her self effacement and good humor.

- I have heard Noonan speak several times and read her often, but tonight she was funnier than I thought she would be.  The bit about President Clinton's pointing cracked us all up backstage.

- I find it interesting that several of our Newsmakers guests thought Hillary Clinton was a poor choice for Secretary of State.  History may not share that opinion.  I remember vividly Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein agreeing on this point over dinner prior to their Newsmakers presentation.  Certainly Peggy Noonan, who penned an entire book criticizing the former Senator and First Lady, could not have thought it was a good idea for President Obama to appoint Clinton.  Nonetheless, with all the "trouble in the world" as it were, it seems that Secretary Clinton has not made any noticeable gaffs, or drawn the widespread criticism that some originally predicted.  Both Woodward and Bernstein thought there would be tremendous conflicts with her husband's work, but there has not been, at least not openly.  It will be interesting to see what everyone has to say when it all is said and done.

- Bravo to whoever asked the West Wing question.  I was just telling my wife how much I wished someone would ask that when it came up.  Noonan's answer was funny, but obviously in jest.  I wish we would have given her a greater platform to talk about the show and its development.  I say that as a West Wing partisan (a nice way of saying "dork," which is how my wife would put it).

-  With her poetic delivery and quick wit, Peggy Noonan is an eminently quotable person.  I jotted down a few things from her presentation I thought were memorable.

        "Just because people call you stupid, doesn't mean you're Lincoln."

        "Not everybody is able in the language they were born into."

        "The 2008 election settles nothing."

        "I don't feel sissyish about American political invective."

        "The shrewd survivalist instincts of the Clintons."

        "Reagan never protected his intellectual flank."

        "Dick Cheney's biggest beef is not with Barack Obama.  It's with George W Bush."

- I thought her view on Nancy Reagan was interesting, not for what she said about the former First Lady, but for what she didn't say.  Noonan said essentially that with age she has come to appreciate Mrs. Reagan as a "profoundly protective spouse."  I infer from this phrasing that Noonan may not have felt that way as a young staffer in the Reagan Administration.  I could be reading too much into it, but it was something that caught my attention amidst all of her genuine praise for Mrs. Reagan.

- Noonan was interested in hearing about who we have had at the series (more so than others who have visited I would say), and she made what I thought was a good recommendation: Cokie and Steve Roberts.  That just may be something we work on.

- I think Noonan is right about President Obama falling into the trap of ignoring the country's great political center.  The political success of the President sometimes depends on the degree to which he can stand up to special interests or extremes among his own base of support.  At some point, our current President will have to do that in the public way President Clinton did when he signed the welfare reform bill, or President Reagan when he appointed Sandra Day O' Connor to the Supreme Court. 

- I can't resist but end with this observation: Whether one agrees with Peggy Noonan or not, let there be no doubt that even by her own standard, she is both "articulate" and "eloquent.."