Even neocons shudder...

Diehard Bush neocon Peggy Noonan had problems with Dubya's inaugural speech today. She found much of it, she writes in tomorrow's Wall Street Journal, "over the top." Noonan quotes Bush's remark that the U.S. has "the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in the world." Noonan responds:

"Ending tyranny in the world? Well that's an ambition, and if you're going to have an ambition it might as well be a big one. But this declaration, which is not wrong by any means, seemed to me to land somewhere between dreamy and disturbing. Tyranny is a very bad thing and quite wicked, but one doesn't expect we're going to eradicate it any time soon. Again, this is not heaven, it's earth."

Noonan quotes the ending of Bush's speech: "Renewed in our strength -- tested, but not weary -- we are ready for the greatest achievements in the history of freedom." She writes:

"One wonders if [this White House] shouldn't ease up, calm down, breathe deep, get more securely grounded. The most moving speeches summon us to the cause of what is actually possible. Perfection in the life of man on earth is not."

George W. Bush may, God help us, do for the 21st Century what Woodrow Wilson did for the 20th.