Peggy Noonan on Bob Woodward's new book

Peggy Noonan, Ronald Reagan's chief wordsmith reviewed Bob Woodward's new book, State of Denial in the Wall Street Journal. She writes, "This is a primer on how the executive branch of the United States works, or rather doesn't work, in the early years of the 21st century."

Particularly interesting is her insight into the attitude of key administration folks toward the State Department: "The young Reagan guys at the table grew up to be the heavyweights of the Bush era." When Reagan took on the Evil Empire, it was always the State Department that fought him and turned out wrong. I grew up reading National Review. I thought Bill Buckley made up "Foggy Bottom" as a derogatory nickname for the State Department. Little did I dream there was an actual piece of our national capital's geography with that name. The possiblity that the State Department might be right for once never occured to those "young Reagan guys!!"