Peggy Noonan: America is divided because Obama is “out there dropping his g’s”

The WSJ columnist says the country can't come together until the president starts enunciating properly

Peggy Noonan is worried about America. Again. The Wall Street Journal columnist’snewest worry arises, as is so often the case, from “a conversation this week with an acquaintance of considerable accomplishment in the political and financial worlds” who thinks America is going to break apart into red and blue factions. “I think a lot about the general subject of what deeply divides us,” Noonan writes, “occasionally with a feeling of some alarm.”

Like any pundit worth her salt, Noonan assumes that her own personal sense of alarm is shared by the country as a whole, and after many paragraphs of gauzy ruminations on the nature of political division, she finally arrives at her point: “No nation’s unity, cohesion and feeling of being at peace with itself can be taken for granted, even ours. They have to be protected day by day, in part by what politicians say. They shouldn’t be making it worse. They shouldn’t make divisions deeper.”

And who are we to blame specifically for these deepening divisions?

In just the past week that means:

The president shouldn’t be using a fateful and divisive word like “impeachment” to raise money and rouse his base. He shouldn’t be at campaign-type rallies where he speaks only to the base, he should be speaking to the country. He shouldn’t be out there dropping his g’s, slouching around a podium, complaining about his ill treatment, describing his opponents with disdain: “Stop just hatin’ all the time.”

Ah, that divisive Obama, busting apart the country’s delicate sense of common unity by employing relaxed diction when chastising House Republicans for VOTING TO SUE HIM. That lawsuit was the “ill treatment” that Noonan apparently believes is a less of a contributor to the country’s intractable partisan divide than Obama’s momentary dips into colloquial modes of speech. The larger point Obama made was that Republicans should be more constructive partners in the governing process. Given yesterday’s embarrassing spectacle in which internal GOP divisions forced the leadership to cancel a vote on their border crisis legislation, you have to think the president might be on to something there.

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Peggy Noonan: Sarah Palin A 'Nincompoop' For Reagan Reduction

Conservative columnist and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan doesn't like people demeaning the Gipper's legacy, not even Sarah Palin, and not even if she's only talking about the former president's Hollywood career.

She writes in her latest column of a recent incident in which Sarah Palin attempted toexplain away a Karl Rove criticism over her "reality show" by drawing parallels to former president Ronald Reagan's silver screen career, including his roles in movies such as "Bedtimes for Bonzo, bozo or something":

Excuse me, but this was ignorant even for Mrs. Palin. Reagan people quietly flipped their lids, but I'll voice their consternation to make a larger point. Ronald Reagan was an artist who willed himself into leadership as president of a major American labor union (Screen Actors Guild, seven terms, 1947-59.) He led that union successfully through major upheavals (the Hollywood communist wars, labor-management struggles); discovered and honed his ability to speak persuasively by talking to workers on the line at General Electric for eight years; was elected to and completed two full terms as governor of California; challenged and almost unseated an incumbent president of his own party; and went on to popularize modern conservative political philosophy without the help of a conservative infrastructure. Then he was elected president.

"The point is not 'He was a great man and you are a nincompoop,' though that is true," Noonan continues. "The point is that Reagan's career is a guide, not only for the tea party but for all in politics. He brought his fully mature, fully seasoned self into politics with him. He wasn't in search of a life when he ran for office, and he wasn't in search of fame; he'd already lived a life, he was already well known, he'd accomplished things in the world."

Though Noonan's piece is not simply a jab at Palin, but rather a larger message about the real political significance of one's actions and accomplishments, as well as the necessity to "earn your way into politics," it's also worth noting that Noonan has never shied away from writing confrontational columns about the former Alaska Governor.

From Palin's coming out party until her decision to step down as Governor of the Frontier State, Noonan has made it clear that she doesn't jive with the "mama grizzly" brand of politics.