Peggy Noonan, the former Reagan speechwriter who has never lost her way with words, warns in her most recent column that the tone and progression of the Republican presidential campaign has not been good to the GOP.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Noonan advises that Republican voters and activists should “sober up” and look at things with a more objective eye. Stop wearing the rose-colored glasses and get your head out of “Republo-world,” she writes.
And she issues a blunt warning that independent voters will decide the 2012 election, and Republicans do themselves no favors by booing questions on national TV about Herman Cain’s past behavior or assuming that the entire incident is a sinister attempt to destroy Cain’s candidacy.
Here’s a portion of Noonan’s piece:
“… What everyone else is seeing — what those who do not live in Republo-world are seeing — is a guy who, faced with the charges, nervously dodged, deflected and denied. What they are seeing is four women, not one or two. What they are seeing is something that may amount to a pattern.
“What the charges deserve is consideration, attention, deep reporting. What they don’t merit is raucous boos, and an insular spirit of ‘You’re either with us or against us.’ …This is a time to be sober. The voting begins in 7½ weeks. We’re picking a president now, right now, every day as we make our decisions.
“… Republicans should be thinking not about what the Republican at the local GOP meeting is thinking, but what the independent across the street is thinking. He’s catching the Cain story on TV and thinking: ‘This guy may have a problem. I want more evidence, but if it’s true, then man, we don’t need to go there again.’
“That independent is a pretty important guy. The GOP better start doing a better job of considering how he sees things. He doesn’t live in Republo-world, but he’s right across the street, and he votes. He’s going to pick the next president.” 
You can read the entire column here.

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