Peggy Noonan

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Peggy Noonan (born Margaret Ellen Noonan on September 7, 1950 in Brooklyn, New York) is an author of seven books on politics, religion and culture, a weekly columnist for The Wall Street Journal, and was a primary speech writer and Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan. She is considered a political conservative.

She is a graduate of Rutherford High School in Rutherford, New Jersey, and Fairleigh Dickinson University.[1]

Five of Noonan's books have been New York Times bestsellers. Noonan is a Trustee of the Manhattan Institute. She has been awarded honorary doctorates from Miami University, St. John Fisher College, her alma mater Fairleigh Dickinson University, Adelphi College, and Saint Francis College. She was nominated for Emmy Awards for her work on The West Wing and America: A Tribute to Heroes.

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[edit] Personal

Noonan married Richard W. Rahn, who was then chief economist at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, in 1985. They lived in Great Falls, Virginia. Their son Will was born in 1987.[2]

Noonan and her husband were divorced after five years of marriage. In 1989 she returned with her son to her native New York. In 2004, according to an interview with Crisis Magazine, she lived in a brownstone in Brooklyn Heights with her son, who attended a high school nearby. [3]

Noonan currently lives in New York City.[4]

[edit] Famous speeches

During 1984, Noonan, as a speechwriter for President Reagan, authored his "Boys of Pointe du Hoc" speech on the 40th anniversary of D-day. She also wrote Reagan's address to the nation after the Challenger explosion, drawing upon the poet John Magee's famous words about aviators who "slipped the surly bonds of earth... and touched the face of God." She worked too on a tribute President Reagan gave to honor John F. Kennedy, at a fundraising event, held at the McLean, Virginia home of Senator Edward M. Kennedy in the spring of 1984.

Later, while working for then-Vice President George H. W. Bush, Noonan coined the phrase "a kinder, gentler nation" and also popularized "a thousand points of light", two memorable catchphrases used by Bush. Noonan also wrote the speech in which Bush pledged: "Read my lips: no new taxes" during his 1988 presidential nomination acceptance speech in New Orleans. Bush's subsequent reversal of that pledge is often cited as a reason for his defeat in his 1992 re-election campaign.

[edit] Current work

Noonan is now an author, a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, and a commentator on broadcast and cable television news shows. She remains a Reagan-style conservative, and she often criticizes the Republican Party leadership. Noonan is a member of the Manhattan Institute's board of trustees.

In mid-August 2004, Noonan took a brief, unpaid leave from the Wall Street Journal to campaign for George W. Bush's reelection. In the years since, Noonan has become increasingly critical of the administration since Bush's inaugural address in January 2005,[5][6] reflective possibly of schisms affecting the current-day U.S. conservative movement.

Before the Reagan years, she worked as daily CBS Radio commentary writer for anchorman Dan Rather at CBS News, whom she once called "the best boss I ever had." From 1975 through 1977 she worked the overnight shift as a newswriter at WEEI Radio in Boston, where she was later Editorial and Public Affairs Director.

She has worked as a contributor on the hit US political drama The West Wing.

Noonan frequently cites the political figures she admires, including Abraham Lincoln, Ronald Reagan, Edmund Burke and Samuel Johnson.

[edit] Books

[edit] Quotations

  • At some point, don't voters start to see all of public life as one big polluted river? And if they do, don't they stop saying things like "That's a busted tire floating by" and "That's an old shoe"? [1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ About Rutherford High School, Rutherford High School. Accessed July 7, 2007. "Career diplomat and ambassador Thomas H. Pickering and presidential speechwriter Peggy Noonan are among those honored as part of this tradition."
  2. ^ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,967310,00.html Hugh Sidey, "The Presidencey: Of Poets and Word Processors, Time (magazine), May 2, 1988.
  3. ^ http://www.crisismagazine.com/september2004/morse.htm Anne Morse, "Meeting Peggy Noonan," Crisis Magazine, September, 2004.
  4. ^ http://tobaccodocuments.org/nysa_ti_s3/TI46320030.html?zoom=750&ocr_position=above_foramatted&start_page=41 Margaret Rahn in Busch/Quayle (sic) Alumni Directory.
  5. ^ http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110006184 Peggy Noonan, "Way Too Much God," The Wall Street Journal, January 21, 2005.
  6. ^ http://opinionjournal.com/columnists/pnoonan/?id=110010326 Peggy Noonan, "American Grit: We can't fire the president right now, so we're waiting it out," The Wall Street Journal, July 13, 2007.

[edit] External links

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