Noonan worked as the 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.
Noonan meeting with President Ronald Reagan in 1988
In 1984, Noonan, as a speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan, authored his "The 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 words about aviators who "slipped the surly bonds of earth ... and touched the face of God." The latter is ranked as the eighth best American political speech of the 20th century, according to a list compiled by professors at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Texas A&M University. Her "The boys of Pointe du Hoc" speech ranks as the 58th best speech of the century, according to the website American Rhetoric.[6]
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Noonan wrote about Sarah Palin's vice presidential candidacy in The Wall Street Journal. In one opinion piece, Noonan expressed her view that Palin did not demonstrate "the tools, the equipment, the knowledge or the philosophical grounding one hopes for, and expects, in a holder of high office," concluding that Palin's candidacy marked a "vulgarization in American Politics" that is "no good... for conservatism... [or] the country."[10]Tony Blankley sharply criticized Noonan for her criticism of Palin.[11]
In 2017, Noonan won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary, for "rising to the moment with beautifully rendered columns that connected readers to the shared virtues of Americans during one of the nation's most divisive political campaigns."[12]
Noonan's weekly column for The Wall Street Journal, entitled "Declarations", has been running since 2000. She is also a regular commentator on NBC's Meet the Press.
Personal life
Noonan in 1986
In November 1985, at age 35, Noonan married 43 year old Richard W. Rahn, who was then chief economist at the US Chamber of Commerce. It was his third marriage, her first.[13] Their son Will was born in 1987.[14]
Noonan and her husband were divorced after five years of marriage. In 1989, a few months after separating from Rahn, she returned with her son to her native New York.[15] In 2004, according to an interview with Crisis Magazine, she lived in a brownstone in Brooklyn Heights with her son, who attended the nearby Saint Ann's School.[16]
In recent years, Noonan has distanced herself from from the Republican Party under Donald Trump. Both in 2016 and 2020, she declined to vote for either Trump or his Democratic opponent. In 2020, she wrote in 18th century political philosopher Edmund Burke.[20]
Reception
While Noonan's speechwriting has been praised, her books and Wall Street Journal columns have been the source of criticism and mockery. Critics have singled out her reliance on personal anecdotes to make broad assertions about current events and changes in American politics and society.[21]
During Hurricane Katrina, Noonan called for looters in New Orleans to be shot.[22]Henry Giroux called it a "barely coded rationale to shoot low-income Black people."[22]
In a March 2013 column, she used her experience staying at a short-staffed airport hotel to demonstrate the Obama administration's lack of focus on job creation and infrastructure spending, even though infrastructure was a significant component of Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which Noonan had previously criticized in November 2010.[23][24]
In August 2019, Noonan was mocked for writing a column on Donald Trump's support among Hispanic Americans which centered on a conversation she had with a Dominican friend who worked at the deli counter at her grocery store.[25][26][27][28][29]
Recurring themes in Noonan's books and columns include the decline of civility, social graces, religiosity, patriotism, bipartisanship and statesmanship in contemporary American politics and society, as well as enduring praise for past conservative political figures such as Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. As a result, her writing is criticized for being overly nostalgic.[30]
In June 2019, after Noonan called on congressional Democrats to censure President Trump in the wake of the Mueller report, he attacked her on Twitter, calling her "simplistic" and claiming that she "is stuck in the past glory of Reagan."[31][32] In June 2022, Trump issued a statement calling Noonan a "weak and frail RINO [Republican In Name Only]... who did much less for Ronald Reagan than she claims, and who actually said bad things about him and his ability to speak" after she wrote in the Wall Street Journal that the Republican Party was "rejecting" Trump in the aftermath of the 2021 United States Capitol attack.[33]
1990: What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era (ISBN0-8129-6989-8)
1994: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness (ISBN1-55850-509-1)
1998: Simply Speaking: How to Communicate Your Ideas With Style, Substance, and Clarity (ISBN0-7881-6775-8) (Published in paperback under the title On Speaking Well)
1999: Character Above All (ISBN0-684-82709-3) (one chapter in an anthology)
^About Rutherford High SchoolArchived October 20, 2007, at the Wayback Machine, 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."
^"Peggy Noonan". Online.wsj.com. Retrieved September 26, 2011.
