There’s a
grace that seems to descend on intelligent women who’ve worked for Republican
presidents. Condoleezza Rice was at George Bush’s side through each of his
Middle East adventures, and Peggy Noonan wrote speeches for the sunny side of
the Ronald Reagan presidency. Both are listened to respectfully, whether they
abandon their critical faculties or not.
Here’s the
conclusion of Rice’s speech to
the Republicans in Tampa—a speech that many judged as the finest and wisest of
the convention:
“Mitt
Romney and Paul Ryan have the experience and the integrity and the vision to
lead us – they know who we are, what we want to be and what we offer the world.
That
is why this is a moment – an election – of consequence. Because it just
has to be – that the most compassionate and freest country on the face of the
earth – will continue to be the most powerful!”
Here’s Peggy Noonan in her blog for the Wall St. Journal today, outlining what
state of mind Mitt Romney should take to his first debate with Barack Obama:
“What Mitt Romney has to show is
command, talent, resolve. He has to move with firmness, strength.
Americans don’t really want someone they’d like to go out and have a beer with,
they want someone who can help them afford a beer. First things
first. Romney at this point should just forget likability—let’s
just say he’s likable enough. He needs people to see certainty, guts,
ability, and heft. Americans are tired of trying to like these guys,
they want to respect them. They’d like to feel honest awe.”
Can you imagine Pat Buchanan or Dick Cheney imagining, let
alone getting away with such complacent, romantic nonsense?
A black conservative academic may want America to be more
compassionate, and any speechwriter for any president will want her words to suspend
our disbelief and leave us in a state of awe. However, Rice and Noonan shouldn’t
be able to utter such sugary platitudes about who Americans are and what
Americans want in a president without being laughed at.
Maybe, it was only an awkward fleeting period in the
emancipation of smart women. Let’s hope, however, that the next generation of
powerful women who ride in the back seat with future presidents don’t come out
of the experience as hero-worshippers and shameless flatterers.
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