Friday, April 25, 2008

Peggy Noonan gets it

Today had another good long post on the pulse of America, and she makes a good point about what Obama needs to do. I think his speech on race made a difference. Now we need to understand that he understands the good in America, too.

But perhaps her most cutting remarks were to Bush.

The reasons for the quiet break with Mr. Bush: spending, they say first, growth in the power and size of government, Iraq. I imagine some of this: a fine and bitter conservative sense that he has never had to stand in his stockinged feet at the airport holding the bin, being harassed. He has never had to live in the world he helped make, the one where grandma's hip replacement is setting off the beeper here and the child is crying there. And of course as a former president, with the entourage and the private jets, he never will. I bet conservatives don't like it. I'm certain Gate 14 doesn't.

If Obama has a closer touch with Americans, it is in part because, alone among the candidates, he was obscure enough after 9/11 to have to go through the regular airport screening process many times. I'm sure he's had to take off his shoes. McCain and Hillary maybe not.

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