Peggy Noonan hasn't seen any sign yet of this "recession" thing everyone keeps banging on about---her corner of the world looks pretty comfy and business-as-usual and full of affluent Christmas shoppers to her---and she and her ilk are feeling a bit nervous because now that Bush is going, some menace or threat might saw off the branch on which their designed-by-Hermes silk cocoons are suspended and crush their way of life under its collective heel.
But who is it, really, that they have most to fear from? Though the piece appears to be about terrorism, more immediate threats include the bear that is devouring Wall Street or a random mob of angry, jobless Wal Mart shoppers storming Wal Street intent on clawing back some of the money pocketed by the Riches and Richesons of Richistan.
"At least," she and her friends mused at a "sparkling" holiday festival far from the sound of foreclosure signs being nailed up, "Bush kept us safe."
Wonkette responds:
Yes, and I think former citizens of that former historic city formerly known as "The Big Easy" might also beg to differ. Not only did he not keep it safe, he has totally forgotten all his promises to build it back better than before. But don't get us started on that one.
At least Bush kept us safe...."[u]nless you lived in New Orleans after Katrina. . . or were killed by anthrax. . . or were shipped off to Iraq or Afghanistan," Blue Texan points out. He too wonders:
But anyway, why does Bush get a total freaking pass on the first worst attack in US history that killed 3,000 people on his watch, especially since the 9/11 Commission concluded that 6 of the 10 major missed opportunities to prevent 9/11 occurred under Mr. Kept Us Safe's watch?
We're just supposed to give him a mulligan on that?
Blue Texan further muses that Noonan's argument ("if there was no--or, as it might be, one--- terrorist attack on your watch, you kept us safe") pretty much means that every president before Bush was a better president than him.
Steve M. points out that whether Bush kept us "safe" depends on your definition of "safe."
But perhaps it's best to let Peggy be Peggy. We all need that occasional break from reality as we know it.
Reading Peggy Noonan’s column is an exercise in intentional dangerous insanity, like taking Ecstasy before a street fight, or eating a bowl of glass shards. And sometimes, she goes into double-secret stealth mode, luring you into a false sense of calm and complacency — Oh, she’s just writing a mildly amusing diary entry from some GOP holiday party in Reston or McLean or whatever, don’t worry — and then you realize the dipshit headline (probably just written by this douche, right?) is actually lifted from her suddenly lunatic prose....
This is the special moment that comes in nearly every Peggy Noonan column, the bit when you sputter out something like “Jesus fucking christ that did NOT happen at all, anywhere.” Was there a Christmas party in Northern Virginia, even? If so, was Peggy Noonan really in town for it?
Yes, because it's really so likely that during the holiday festivities the assembled plutocrats were standing round murmuring, "At least Bush kept us safe."
Wait, though. What if the emphasis were different?
If she'd told it that way, we could almost believe in this Wall Street Christmas Carol.
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