Strata Lucida

Let the right speak for itself

Naturally, the left side of Blogistan is not very impressed with Shrub's interview on Sunday. That's to be expected. The most interesting reactions are coming from (former?) Bush supporters. Let's check in with Peggy "thousand points of light" Noonan, a dyed-in-the-wool true believer if ever there was one:

I never expect Mr. Bush, in interviews, to be Tony Blair: eloquent, in the moment, marshaling facts and arguments with seeming ease and reeling them out with conviction and passion. Mr. Bush is less facile with language, as we all know, less able to march out his facts to fight for him.

These low expectations notwithstanding, Noonan says "I am one of those who feel his performance was not impressive."

She goes on to drop this howler on us:

Republicans think politics is something you have to do and that policy is something you have to have to move things forward in line with a philosophy. They like philosophy. But they are bored by policy and hate having to memorize talking points.

Although if you substitute the word "ideology" for "philosophy" in the above, it just about works.

The other intriguing response was Randy Andy Sullivan's in the New Republic:

I'm not one of those who believes that a good president has to have the debating skills of a Tony Blair or the rhetorical facility of Bill Clinton. I cannot help liking the president as a person. I still believe he did a great and important thing in liberating Iraq (although we have much, much more to do). But, if this is the level of coherence, grasp of reality, and honesty that is really at work in his understanding of domestic fiscal policy, then we are in even worse trouble than we thought. We have a captain on the fiscal Titanic who thinks he's in the Caribbean.

Posted by Chris at February 9, 2004 03:26 PM