Peggy Noonan

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Peggy Noonan, on Hannity and Colmes.
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Peggy Noonan, on Hannity and Colmes.

Peggy Noonan (born Margaret E. Noonan on September 7, 1950 in Brooklyn, New York) is an author, political analyst and pundit for the Republican Party. She is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University, and was a speechwriter for U.S. presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. Many of Noonan's writings are informed by a Roman Catholic spirituality.

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[edit] Personal

Peggy Noonan was formerly married to economist Richard W. Rahn who works at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the two at one point lived in Brooklyn, New York. Their son was born in 1987.[1]

Noonan and her husband married in 1985, while Noonan was working for Reagan. The two were divorced after four years of marriage. In 2004, according to an interview with Crisis Magazine, she lived in a brownstone in Brooklyn Heights with her son.[2] In the Crisis Magazine article, Noonan spoke of exposing her son to the exciting world of politics:

Her son, Will, loves politics and has grown into the sort of young man Noonan can bring to a dinner party at Vice-President Dick Cheney's home "and have a good conversation with the vice president of the United States about the war," Noonan says. "How lucky is that kid to be exposed to that sort of thing — and how lucky am I as a parent to take my son to such a thing."

In 1988 the main residence for the Rahns was Great Falls, Virginia.[3]

Databases also give Noonan's birthdate as September 15, 1950, which since it is associated with all of her addresses under her married name appears to be more accurate than the September 7th date given above.

She has written of visiting her "local mosque" on East 96th Street in Manhattan.[4]

[edit] Famous speeches

During 1984, Noonan is credited with writing Reagan's "The Boys of Point Du Hoc" speech on the 40th anniversary of D-day. This speech, given in Normandy at the very site of the action, honors the Allied troops that died in the invasion. She also wrote Reagan's address to the nation after the Challenger explosion, drawing upon the poet John Magee's famous words about the astronauts who “Slipped the surly bonds of earth, and touched the face of God.” [1]

Later, while working for President George H.W. Bush, Noonan coined the phrase "a kinder, gentler nation" and also popularized H.G. Wells' "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, the subsequent reversal of which is thought to have contributed to Bush's defeat in the 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.

In mid-August 2004, Noonan took an unpaid leave of absence from the Wall Street Journal to work as a consultant for George W. Bush's reelection campaign.

Before the Reagan years, she worked for Dan Rather at CBS News. She was the commencement speaker at Miami University in 2006.

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

[edit] Books

[edit] External links

[edit] Criticism

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