"Before that Mr. Kerry did nothing but boring boilerplate–John Edwards "shares American values"–all that vague stuff. What does that mean? It means someone’s focus group said “they like the word values” But they like it when it has meaning, when it is connected to issues that mean something, not when it’s just some dumb word cynically thrown out for the boobs. Boobs are sophisticated now. They may be sophisticated beyond their intelligence, but they know rote words used to please them are rote words used to please them. And they’re not impressed. "
I wouldn’t want to go beneath Peggy Noonan’s utterly civil but nonetheless lethal scalpel! But please, every columnist should have an RSS feed. Ditto for, say, David Brooks, or whomever you want to follow (Krugman triggers so much response he doesn’t need his feed, each of his columns will be abundantly praised or fisked anyway).