Althouse: "He was dignified, hilarious and modest. He told me that I’d sometimes been unfair to him, sometimes mean, sometimes really, really mean..."

November 23, 2016

"He was dignified, hilarious and modest. He told me that I’d sometimes been unfair to him, sometimes mean, sometimes really, really mean..."

"... but that when I was he usually deserved it, always appreciated it, and keep it up. He spoke of other things; he characterized for me my career. I’d heard of his charm offensive, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say how charming, funny and frank he was—and, as I say, how modest. How actually humble. It moved me. And it hurt to a degree a few weeks later when I wrote in this space that 'Sane Donald Trump' would win in a landslide but that the one we had long seen, the crazed, shallow one, wouldn’t, and didn’t deserve to. Is it possible there are deeper reserves of humility, modesty and good intent lurking around in there than we know? And maybe a toolbox, too, that can screw those things together and produce something good?"

Said Peggy Noonan after that time — 6 weeks ago — Donald Trump got on the phone with her.

Kind of vulnerable to flattery, isn't she?

Anyway, yeah, let's hope Donald Trump can screw us together... in a good way.

39 comments:

mccullough said...: Very vulnerable to flattery. A common flaw in news people. Ben Bradlee was a lap dog for JFK. There are too many news pets to enumerate.; 11/23/16, 12:34 PM
Achilles said...: It has been Fake News all the way down.

The left killed themselves when they coined the term Fake News. They just don't know it yet.; 11/23/16, 12:34 PM
Brent said...: Really Really hope so; 11/23/16, 12:35 PM
Brando said...: "Kind of vulnerable to flattery, isn't she?"

Certainly seems so. One thing I do appreciate about Trump is how much he exposed the weak and self-important facades of so much of the media and political officeholders of both parties. Look how he can insult them one minute, then play them for suckers the next, each time getting them to run at the football like Charlie Brown. Amusing, if nothing else.; 11/23/16, 12:37 PM
whitney said...: That will be widely mocked by the far left. Peggy Noonan is one of their punching bags.; 11/23/16, 12:42 PM
Sebastian said...: "Kind of vulnerable to flattery, isn't she?" Just imagine the things they'll let you do, those suckers for flattery.

"Anyway, yeah, let's hope Donald Trump can screw us together... in a good way." Shades of Laslo here. Careful.; 11/23/16, 12:44 PM
JPS said...: "Is it possible there are deeper reserves of humility, modesty and good intent lurking around in there than we know?"

I could easily believe it. I'm not ready to bet on it, but the country has, so if he does well I will happily say I was wrong about him all along. I really hope I'll be saying that in a few years.; 11/23/16, 12:47 PM
exhelodrvr1 said...: She's one of those who was fooled by Obama; 11/23/16, 12:49 PM
Brando said...: "I could easily believe it. I'm not ready to bet on it, but the country has, so if he does well I will happily say I was wrong about him all along. I really hope I'll be saying that in a few years."

I'll second that. In many ways he's a blank slate, as he has no fixed points constraining him. That could be very good or very bad, but I'm hoping it's more of the former.; 11/23/16, 12:53 PM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 11/23/16, 1:00 PM
readering said...: From her 1994 memoir:

The dinner last night was the White House Correspondents Association Dinner ― huge, black tie, twenty-five hundred people in the Hilton. Vulgar and fun. I was with Vanity Fair at a bad table that gave us a lot of freedom to get up and walk around.

Donald Trump was with us, at the next table. A halo of sprayed hair, a face still round with subcutaneous fat. When we were introduced I looked into his eyes ― small, bright, thoughtfree ― and was surprised to think: He’s crazy. He was seated next to a beautiful young woman named Vendela, who someone whispered is a famous model.

About an hour into dinner there was movement ― someone leaving our table, Vendela joining us. She was composed but looked as if she’d endured something, like a swimmer. Trump, I was told, had spent the meal talking about her breasts and other women’s breasts and who has good legs and who’s probably good at sex. It was all so vulgar, so comically crass, that it was a surprise. People don’t usually act so exactly like their reputations.; 11/23/16, 1:05 PM
Sebastian said...: "People don’t usually act so exactly like their reputations." Actually, most people do. But why exactly is it more vulgar to talk about other people's big breasts than their small minds?; 11/23/16, 1:15 PM
Greg Hlatky said...: "You can buy a sportswriter for a steak."

- George Weiss, Yankees general manager; 11/23/16, 1:20 PM
Rick said...: One thing I do appreciate about Trump is how much he exposed the weak and self-important facades of so much of the media and political officeholders of both parties.

People with self-respect don't change their behavior because someone rich or powerful pays attention to them.; 11/23/16, 1:21 PM
Titus said...: lots of me's in that article.

ME!

tits; 11/23/16, 1:24 PM
Drago said...: Titus: "lots of me's in that article. ME!"

Reminds you of Obama, doesn't it?; 11/23/16, 1:29 PM
Wilbur said...: I have a very good friend in the basketball coaching profession. Without directly saying so, it was clear from our conversations that the most publicly irascible, unfriendly coach you can think of - Bob Knight, for example - was capable of great acts of quiet kindness and could charm the birds from the trees when moved to do so.

You don't get to where Trump is (in business) without this quality as well.; 11/23/16, 1:36 PM
gadfly said...: Peggy Noonan does her presidential swoon as each new president is elected. Its the position of President, don't you see? Everyone knows that conservatives are driven by their emotions - No? Well, how else do we explain Trump's nomination by the GOP?; 11/23/16, 1:36 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: Kind of vulnerable to flattery, isn't she?

The telephonic equivalent of the pussy grab.......; 11/23/16, 1:43 PM
Michael K said...: There are quite a few people who know Trump well and for years. Their description if him is totally at odds with this public personna that he has presented for years. It may be a New York thing.

Looking and talking to his children is another way to see inside the bubble. I think we are going to learn a lot about this man.

The left is determined to caricature him but I think he has ways of letting us see who he is. Bush never got beyond the caricature and neither did Humbert Humphrey who my father-in-law knew well.; 11/23/16, 1:45 PM
Anonymous said...: Noonan has gotten sappier with age, and she was overly sapped to start with.; 11/23/16, 1:46 PM
mikee said...: It was Ben Franklin who said something along the lines of, "We shall all be screwed together, or we shall be screwed separately."

Or as a friend of mine in college used to say, "Get out the plastic sheeting and the Wesson oil, it's gonna be another one of those days."; 11/23/16, 2:13 PM
mikee said...: It was Ben Franklin who said something along the lines of, "We shall all be screwed together, or we shall be screwed separately."

Or as a friend of mine in college used to say, "Get out the plastic sheeting and the Wesson oil, it's gonna be another one of those days."; 11/23/16, 2:13 PM
Bill Harshaw said...: I'm reasonably sure we'll all be screwed.; 11/23/16, 2:14 PM
Bay Area Guy said...: I'd rather be humped by Trump, then pilloried by Hillary....; 11/23/16, 2:36 PM
Alex said...: So DJT is a pig? The American people knew that and still voted for him because the other one was the devil. Pig over devil.; 11/23/16, 2:49 PM
Michael K said...: So far, he is doing well and I'm glad for all of us.; 11/23/16, 3:15 PM
Dave in Tucson said...: Not just flattery, Althouse. The left has created this narrative of Trump as a horrible monster. When he fails to conform to their expectations, they don't have any other way to evaluate him. And like Bill Clinton, he's got the ability to be charismatic and convincing when he wants.; 11/23/16, 3:43 PM
William said...: Trump's core business was selling expensive condos to very wealthy people. He knows how to flatter people who flatter themselves that they're no easy marks. I wonder if he ever sold anything overpriced to Bernie Madoff.; 11/23/16, 4:52 PM
Kathryn51 said...: Peggy Noonan wrote President Reagan's "Boys of Pointe de Hoc" speech - and for that, I will forgive her anything, even her swoon over Obama in 2008.; 11/23/16, 5:40 PM
lonetown said...: You forgot the comma, it's

screw us, together...; 11/23/16, 6:42 PM
glenn said...: "Peggy Noonan wrote President Reagan's "Boys of Pointe de Hoc" speech - and for that, I will forgive her anything, even her swoon over Obama in 2008."

THIS!

I've been to Pointe du Hoc. And read the plaque about the Rangers exploits there. Hard to forgive swooning over Obama when he was obviously a con man but I'll try.; 11/23/16, 6:46 PM
Ken B said...: Noonan has sounded exactly like a fool would sound for decades now. I draw the obvious conclusion.; 11/23/16, 7:38 PM
Big Mike said...: Kind of vulnerable to flattery, isn't she?

Most women are, as you are no doubt aware, you gorgeous, intelligent, font of wisdom, you veritable reincarnation of the goddess Athena.

(@Meade, I didn't go too overboard, did I?); 11/23/16, 7:55 PM
Lewis Wetzel said...: So I did a start page search: "how to talk to your democrat relatives at thanksgiving."
Almost every link that came up was a page written by liberals, instructing them how to talk to their conservative relatives at Thanksgiving.
Obsess, much?
My favorite from the Mercury. San Jose, I think. It had the non-partisan headline "Emotional Thanksgiving? Families dread holiday after Trump’s election win" (http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/11/16/for-thanksgiving-families-struggle-to-put-aside-election-politics/)
It begins:

For the most part, Mariza Izaac is looking forward to spending Thanksgiving at the Healdsburg home of her good friend James Nunemacher and his new husband Manuel Alvarado.

But the invitation comes with a request: no talk about the presidential election.

Izaac, of El Sobrante, gets why. Nunemacher’s parents, evangelical Christians from the South, will be visiting. They didn’t have an easy time accepting his marriage. And, they voted for Donald Trump. It’s a sore spot, says Izaac, who cried for two days after the election. And Alvarado, an immigrant from Mexico, might not want to hear praise for a president-elect who said demeaning things about Mexicans and other immigrants on the campaign trail.

“James says we won’t talk about politics,” said Izaac, who herself immigrated from Brazil 35 years ago. “It will ruin the day.”

Such is the complicated emotional terrain that many families and friends will navigate as they gather for the holidays next Thursday.

Because nearly everyone is spending Thanksgiving with a gay, married, illegal alien couple.; 11/23/16, 9:59 PM
traditionalguy said...: Flattery is a powerful tactic. DaTrump has many tools in his box, and flattery is as good as any.

But Noonan is presenting another hunch of hers. Namely the fix it up man and master of tools may have good intentions for everybody.

That is the hunch of a lot of people today. And he has no donors first to trip him up. That is amazing to comprehend.; 11/23/16, 10:23 PM
james conrad said...: Kind of vulnerable to flattery, isn't she?

Aren't we all?; 11/24/16, 4:24 AM
Zach said...: She is vulnerable to flattery, or to simply falling in love with the idea of the Presidency. But at the same time, the guy has some obvious charm. He smiles, he's relaxed. He breaks off speeches to say nice things about the person he just mentioned. He talks about the great things that are going to happen (without many specifics). In some ways, he reminds me of Bill Clinton as a speaker -- lots of emoting.

In contrast, Hillary always seemed like she was shouting from cue cards. She had this idea of what a candidate is supposed to sound like, but she couldn't manage to make that speaker sound like her. She sounded like she was focusing on the pronunciation of every single word at a volume she wasn't comfortable speaking at, and she never let one word flow into the next.

Noonan is a former speechwriter, and she wrote for a President who was very good at delivering speeches. I think that once you had figured out their voice, it would be relatively easy to write for Trump or Bill, but almost impossible to write a speech that would sound good with Hillary delivering it.

Here's the text of the Point du Hoc speech:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2013/06/06/the_boys_of_pointe_du_hoc_96877.html

Now try to imagine Hillary's horrible flat delivery and random pauses giving it:

We. Stand. On a lonely. Windswept point.

On the northern. Shore of France! The air is soft. But forty years ago at this moment! The air was dense. With smoke and the cries of men. And the air was filled. With the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon...; 11/24/16, 1:05 PM
Mountain Maven said...: She's a fickle moderate, what do you expect?; 11/24/16, 9:45 PM