Dissecting Peggy.

Peggy Noonan, for those of you who don't know, is a famous conservative writer and thinker, whose claim to fame is that she was Ronald Reagan's speech writer back in the day. Ms. Noonan is still relevant today, because she continues to write for the Wall Street Journal and other major publications, and folks on the right continue to hang on to every word. 

So let's go over what she wrote recently about the state of the 2020 presidential election. 

"It’s late in the game, most peoples’ minds are set, and more than 40 million have already voted. But he did himself some good. He wasn’t a belligerent nut. He held himself together, controlled himself, presented opening remarks that made sense. He won, not a dazzling win but a win that kept him in the game. He succeeded in doing what Joe Biden didn’t have to do: If you wanted or needed an excuse, an out, to vote for Mr. Trump, if you wanted an argument that justified your decision in a conversation in the office, he probably gave you what you need.

It was a good debate. The candidates argued big things. Both had some good moves. Mr. Trump was smart to dwell, early on, on opening up economically. He hung a “Closed” sign around Mr. Biden’s neck. Mr. Biden deftly turned accusations of familial venality into reminders of the president’s refusal, after five years of demands, to show his tax returns.

Mr. Biden too often lapses into government-speak—“the public option.” He was in government 47 years, and sounds it. Mr. Trump’s power, recovered Thursday night, is to speak like normal people, so you can understand him without having to translate what he’s saying in your head. He appears to have lied a great deal. That will be adjudicated in the coming days. "

Ms. Noonan writes that Donald trump "held himself together". What debate was she watching? About thirty minutes (after his meds started to wear off) trump reverted to his old self. He couldn't keep still and he once again kept interrupting the moderator and his opponent. 

As for hanging a "Closed sign" around Biden's neck, most Americans do want to close shop if it means getting our country back to normal. Most Americans will listen to the doctors and health care officials and not the political yes- men and hacks working for this administration, who want the country to remain open for purely political reasons. 

"All that said, where are we? This close to Election Day and everyone with bated breath. Everyone sees the polls, the clear Biden lead nationwide and the smaller lead in most of battleground states. We know what those polls suggest. But there is little air of defeat among Trump supporters and no triumphalism among Democrats.

Trump supporters believe he will win because of his special magic, Trump foes fear he will win because of his dark magic. Pollsters and pundits stare at the data and wonder how to quantify his unfathomable magic. It’s remarkable that all in their different ways put such stock in the president’s powers, his ability to pull a black swan out of a hat. I believe he is not magic and faces a big loss, and from the way he’s acted the week leading up to the debate—flailing about, stirring themeless chaos—so does he."

No Peggy, "Trump foes" fear that Russia will be allowed to pull a repeat of what they did in 2016. They fear that Russia will do everything to keep their guy in the White House, and that the American people will fall for it once again. 

"But there are a few points that contradict the picture. One is the number 56. That is the percentage of registered voters who, asked by Gallup if they are better off than they were four years ago, say yes. (Gallup has asked this regularly in election years since 1984.) Fifty-six percent—in a pandemic, after protests, riots and recession!

It’s only a poll, but after Gallup, a New York Times/Siena poll asked the same question, and 49% said they were better off.

What’s interesting, though, is that when Siena asked respondents if the country was better off than it was four years ago, only 39% said yes."

Poor Peggy is trying so hard to find a trump silver lining.

"The second data point has to do with Mr. Trump’s rallies—big, boisterous and frequent. He’s been in Michigan and North Carolina and has rallies planned this weekend in Ohio, Wisconsin and New Hampshire. “Gastonia Municipal Airport was packed shoulder to shoulder Wednesday night as tens of thousands of people showed up,” read a local North Carolina news report. Mr. Biden doesn’t seem to draw much of anybody, and doesn’t try. He doesn’t have rallies, and barely even appearances at this point. You can, seeing the polls, hypothesize that what you’re seeing at the Trump rallies is a political movement in its death throes. But I don’t know, they look lively to me. You might say, “The Democrats aren’t having rallies because they are more careful about the virus.” Fair enough, but in a lifetime watching politics, sometimes up close, I have never seen crowds keep away from someone they love. They’ll come whether you want them or not; they’ll find out you’re coming and stand at the side of the road to cheer as the motorcade goes by."

Or, it could just be that this is not so much about Biden as it is about trump. The people voting for Biden might not be enthusiastic about voting for him, but they are sure as hell passionate about voting against Mr. trump. And there in lies the rub. There is passion on both sides for the same man for different reasons. Peggy seems to be forgetting about that.

 "If Mr. Biden is an extremely lucky man he will win the presidency and his party will hold the House and lose the Senate. If the Democrats win all three they’ll be a runaway train fueled by pent-up progressive demand. If the Democrats lose the Senate, Mr. Biden will have a handy excuse for his natural moderation: “You guys may want court packing, reparations and taxes on bovine flatulence but I’ve got to get it past Mitch McConnell.” If the Democrats lose the Senate the Biden presidency will be more moderate, and more popular in a country whose nerves are shot.

A Republican Senate will let Biden be Biden."

Why does Peggy assume that "more moderate" will be "more popular"? I am pretty sure the center- left leaning democrats who are voting for Joe Biden are not sending him to Washington to be a moderate. Just look at what Mitch McConnell and republicans in Washington have done over the past four years. Look at what they did with the supreme court nominations and their theft of a seat on the Court from Barack Obama.  I suspect that because of these things even so called moderate democrats are pissed off and want revenge.  

Finally, Peggy, being an older white woman, allowed her racism flag to fly in the closing paragraph of her essay. 

"For her part, vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris is, when on the trail, giddy. She’s dancing with drum lines and beginning rallies with “Wassup, Florida!” She’s throwing her head back and laughing a loud laugh, especially when nobody said anything funny. She’s the younger candidate going for the younger vote, and she’s going for a Happy Warrior vibe, but she’s coming across as insubstantial, frivolous. When she started to dance in the rain onstage, in Jacksonville, Fla., to Mary J. Blige’s “Work That,” it was embarrassing.

If the dancing Kamala Harris was doing was embarrassing, what would Peggy call that spasmic display of untold dimensions that Donald trump unleashed on his supporters at a rally the other day? If Kamala Harris is coming off as "frivolous" what the heck would she call what Donald trump is doing?

Peggy Noonan is doing what a lot of other white pundits, journalists, and other white people in general have been doing when it comes to Donald trump. They overlook and allow all the things that he does because he happens to be white. The things he does and gets away with would not be tolerated if they were being perpetrated by a person of color, or even a woman for that matter. You heard Barack Obama kind of joke about it the other day. , but we all know that he was serious. And, sadly, he was right. 

Peggy Noonan's take on the upcoming election, at first glance seemed reasoned and impartial. She tried to be objective, but her inner racism was showing, and it manifested itself in her closing paragraph.  

When Donald trump gyrates on stage, simulates a sex act with the American flag, and says all manner of obnoxious things, I suppose that is just normal behavior for those who are allowed to behave in such a manner. When a woman of color shows black joy in its purest form, we get columns from old white women criticizing her. 

Peggy Noonan will be voting for Donald trump, and if you were to see Peggy Noonan on the street and ask her why, she wouldn't be able to tell you.