Friday, January 21, 2005

Peggy Noonan on Bush's 2005 inaugural address:

...This world is not heaven.

The president's speech seemed rather heavenish. It was a God-drenched speech. This president, who has been accused of giving too much attention to religious imagery and religious thought, has not let the criticism enter him. God was invoked relentlessly. "The Author of Liberty." "God moves and chooses as He wills. We have confidence because freedom is the permanent hope of mankind ... the longing of the soul."

...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.


Peggy Noonan on Bush's 2001 inaugural address:

The tone was properly ecumenical, but the content was God-filled: "We are guided by a power larger than ourselves, Who created us equal in his image"; "Abandonment and abuse are not acts of God, they are failures of love"; "Church and charity, synagogue and mosque, lend our communities their humanity, and they will have an honored place in our plans and laws"; "Sometimes in life we are called to do great things. But as a saint of our times has said, every day we are called to do small things with great love."

... his speaking so much and so feelingly of God's place and precedence, his speaking so explicitly of poverty and disadvantage as failures of love, puts the Democrats of Congress in another interesting position.
If you don't give room to faith-based help, and freedom-based assistance to children in trouble in school and on the streets, God and I gonna open up a can of whupass on you.

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