Speeches are not magic and there is no great speech without great policy. Peggy Noonan More Quotes by Peggy Noonan More Quotes From Peggy Noonan Some of the stupidest brilliant people who ever lived. Peggy Noonan brilliant people interesting I think we are seeing a great political party shatter before our eyes, but we are witnessing history. Something important is ending. It is hard to believe what replaces it will be better. No one knows where this goes. The top of The Republican Party and the bottom have split. Peggy Noonan top-news What Andrew Cuomo said is, truly, a scandal. It's a scandal if he actually thinks it - that those who hold conservative views on abortion, gun rights and marriage are extreme, anathema and have no place in the state. Peggy Noonan place abortion marriage gun I ought to pray as much as God's on my mind, because then I'd pray a lot. All I can tell you is God is real, and so that infuses everything. Peggy Noonan you i-can god mind The president - every president - works for us. We don't work for him. We sometimes lose track of this, or rather get the balance wrong. Respect is due and must be palpable, but now and then you have to press, to either force them to be forthcoming or force them to reveal that they won't be. Peggy Noonan you respect work sometimes Memo to future presidents: Never stake your entire survival on the painful passing of a bad bill. Never take the country down the road to 'Demon Pass.' Peggy Noonan road down future country Presidents have a right to certain prerogatives, including the expectation of a certain deference. He's the president; this is history. But we seem to have come a long way since Ronald Reagan was regularly barked at by Sam Donaldson, almost literally, and the president shrugged it off. Peggy Noonan expectation long history way All great political families have myths: stories they tell themselves about how history happened. Peggy Noonan great tell political history There is nothing wrong with being a declared liberal or conservative and conducting a sympathetic interview with a political figure who shares your views. Peggy Noonan wrong your nothing political You don't tell people who disagree with you they'd be better off somewhere else. And you don't reduce them to stereotypes; you address them as fully formed people worthy of respect. You try to persuade them. Peggy Noonan better you respect people