Peggy Noonan offers some rather mild — but insightful — criticism of W’s inaugural address, his call to march off and liberate the world.
As Noonan concludes:
“Renewed in our strength–tested, but not weary–we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom.”
This is–how else to put it?–over the top. It is the kind of sentence that makes you wonder if this White House did not, in the preparation period, have a case of what I have called in the past “mission inebriation.” A sense that there are few legitimate boundaries to the desires born in the goodness of their good hearts.
One wonders if they shouldn’t ease up, calm down, breathe deep, get more securely grounded. The most moving speeches summon us to the cause of what is actually possible. Perfection in the life of man on earth is not.
You are linked to the 2001 inauguration.
Bush said, “The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands.”, the cynic in me wondered if this could means: Failure to liberate the entire world will result in the abolition of liberty at home.