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Noonan: Expect a Frugal Holiday

Nation not in an excessive mood

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Dec 12, 2008 7:41 AM CST

(Newser) – Will this be the last Christmas of the big-spending era? Will stalwart shoppers, who still can’t see this recession, grab big-ticket items, “sliding the platinum card along the counter with a ‘We who are about to die salute you’ flair”? Or will everyone hunker down for a new, more frugal age? Peggy Noonan is betting on the latter, she writes in the Wall Street Journal. The national mood has shifted.

“The new mood seems to involve a new modesty, and something a little more humane.” Oprah cancels her “favorite things” show. Bill Gates espouses community activism. Auto CEOs are lambasted for flying private jets. There’s “a new, or renewed sense of national shame,” Noonan writes. “A sense of reckoning.” Selfish—think Rod Blagojevich—is out. Communal action—think Obama’s public works plan—is in. “Rectitude chic, coming to a statehouse near you.”

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (3)]

There won't be tons of presents under the tree this year for many families. (Shutterstock)

The nation is not in a spend-happy mood. (Shutterstock)

Employees from Grand Street Gardens are met by a member of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's protection detail as they deliver a Christmas Tree to his residence in Chicago, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

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There's something going on, a new or renewed sense of national shame. It is a reassertion that there actually are rules, and that it is embarrassing to break them in a way so colorfully damaging to everyone else. - Peggy Noonan

I had never seen him until the news this week, and there he was, a lipless, dull-featured, wig-wearing moron with a foul-mouthed harridan of a wife. I thought, That's exactly what a guy like that would look like! - Peggy Noonan on Rod Blagojevich

You don't have to worry that kids won't go online, you have to worry the minute they do.
- Peggy Noonan, on Obama's plan to ensure all classrooms have internet access

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Noonan: Expect a Frugal Holiday