Jon Stewart makes fun of her, and a lot of people think she’s stuffy. But as a person whose politics are part paleoconservative, part libertarian (look those up on Wikipedia to be sure) — but who finds himself voting for Democrats because they’re less obnoxious than Republicans — Peggy Noonan’s reasonings usually strike me as dead-on. Consider her latest column, on the Big Mistake being debated on Capitol Hill:

President Obama appears to have misstepped on a major initiative and defining issue. He has misjudged the nation’s mood … His news conference the other night was bad. He was filibustery and spinny and gave long and largely unfollowable answers that seemed aimed at limiting the number of questions asked and running out the clock. You don’t do that when you’re fully confident. Far more seriously, he didn’t seem to be telling the truth. We need to create a new national health-care program in order to cut down on government spending? Who would believe that? Would anybody? [bold mine–R]

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