Check out Peggy Noonan, blabbing here on the Daily Show to promote her cloyingly titled new book Patriotic Grace (no, I haven't read it; reading Noonan is bad for your teeth).
I think it's finally come to me, what I really loathe about the former Reagan speechwriter who has made a career out of writing high-sounding smarm.
It's the same thing I loathe about myself:
I am a sucker for a nicely turned phrase, an earnest plea for political "seriousness," a surprising declaration that, in the end, we're really all the same—and, when you think about it (when you really think about it) we're all pretty darn wonderful, after all.
This is why certain kinds of communicators shouldn't be in charge—and, furthermore, shouldn't be asked broad questions about what ails the nation.
Much as I hate to admit it—and I'll deny it tomorrow—Noonan and I are that kind of communicator.
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