PEGGY NOONAN ON CANDIDATE DIGNITY: She ascribes it to the fact that familiarity breeds contempt:

I think it's that all our candidates for president have met, or know well, too many former and sitting presidents. They've seen them up close, they know them, they have seen their flaws and mess and inadequacy. Knowing a lot of former presidents, and a lot of incumbents, will give you a too mortal sense of what the presidency is.

The problem with former presidents is that knowing them keeps you from being awed by the presidency. When you haven't met them, you have a more austere and august sense of who they are, and what a president is.

Maybe the issue is also the blogosphere and the atmosphere created when you have so many people writing so much about so many things. I got a C in Economics, but I do recall how supply and demand works. When there is such an enormous supply of everyone's 2 cents, that pretty much becomes the value of their opinion--and perhaps of the opinion of the people being discussed.

The candidates are just meeting our reduced expectations.

Technorati Tag: Peggy Noonan adn Election 2008.