Reply #11

I can remember Noonan from her Reagan speech writing days. She wrote the stirring words of comfort he uttered after the '86 space shuttle disaster. Disagree with her politics, sure, but she had a gift with the word.

But by ensconcing herself in the alternate reality that is the Fox bubble, she has transmogrified into a clueless and thoroughly uninformed and uninformative hack. She "feels" the crowd's enthusiasm at Romney rallies; does she even remember that same unscientifically quantified "surge" that was reported at the Mondale rallies in the campaign rallies immediately preceding his record landslide loss? She also wrote about "vibrations" and "sensing" good things. Lots of anecdotal nonsense.

Noonan and those other "educated," blindfold-wearing, self-deluded and self-styled psephologists like George F. Will and Michael Barone really need to get to know their country better in general. It might not be a bad idea too for them to consult with pollsters without the last name Rasmussen.

Noonan has on her own developed into what a social commentator or pundit fears most: thoroughly inconsequential. She has heaped yet one more shovelful onto the rising peak of Bullshit Mountain.

Should we not expect better from the conservative "thinkers"? If I were a Republican strategist and really wanted to win next time through sounding out my prospective constituency, I'd trade 10 Noonans for the thoughts of, say, a randomly selected independent-leaning woman from a Northeast or Midwest suburb. I don't think many such voters were at those last Romney rallies.