Peggy Noonan responds to her critics in today's Wall Street Journal. I am glad she stuck to her guns. A fine piece indeed.
Another reflection on President Bush's inaugural address I would bring to our readers' attention is that of J. Bottum of the Weekly Standard. Bottum believes that a variety of Thomism is the underlying thread that bound the inaugural together. There is a grain of truth to the idea that a certain brand of natural law philosophy and universal conceptions of justice, liberty, and rights come together and have a degree of common ground. But the address went into rhetorical excess. It could just as easily have been James Madison as Thomas Aquinas.
Furthermore, a friend of mine commented that he had heard Bottum give an address a few years back where Bottum criticized some conservatives and conservative publications for holding to the idea that Aquinas, the Founders, and Abe Lincoln all said the same thing. After listening to the President's address, my friend said (in reference to Bottum), "guess he got over it."