09:25 pm
Peggy Noonan’s Lame Explanation
Apparently for Peggy Noonan, it isn’t over even when “It’s over.”
In our off-air conversation, I got on the subject of the leaders of the Republican party assuming, now, that whatever the base of the Republican party thinks is what America thinks. I made the case that this is no longer true, that party leaders seem to me stuck in the assumptions of 1988 and 1994, the assumptions that reigned when they were young and coming up.
“The first lesson they learned is the one they remember,” I said to Todd — and I’m pretty certain that is a direct quote. But, I argued, that’s over, those assumptions are yesterday, the party can no longer assume that its base is utterly in line with the thinking of the American people. And when I said, “It’s over!” — and I said it more than once — that is what I was referring to. I am pretty certain that is exactly what Todd and Murphy understood I was referring to. In the truncated version of the conversation, on the Web, it appears I am saying the McCain campaign is over. I did not say it, and do not think it.
The problem with this is that she says that she said “The first lesson they learned is one they remember” to Chuck Todd, not Mike Murphy. Now it’s true that there was some untelligible cross-chat at the beginning of the clip, but during that time, Chuck Todd was still on the air. So unless something was cut out from the clip, there’s no way what she says could be true — because the first clear words you hear are “It’s over.”
Please explain that Peggy. Or better yet, admit the truth.