Jeff Lord is right to take Ruth Marcus of The Washington Post to task for her criticisms of Mitt Romney’s critique of the Obama Administration’s handling of the acts of war against American interests in Egypt and Libya.

Well, I would add Peggy Noonan to that list. During an appearance on Fox News with Bill Hemmer yesterday, The Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan speechwriter also took Romney to task:

I was thinking as he spoke, I think I belong to the old school of thinking that in times of great drama and heightened crisis, and in times when something violent has happened to your people, I always think discretion is the better way to go. When you step forward in the midst of a political environment and start giving statements on something dramatic and violent that has happened, you’re always leaving yourself open to accusations that you are trying to exploit things politically. I don’t feel that Mr. Romney has been doing himself any favors say in the past few hours – perhaps since last night. Sometimes, when really bad things happen, hot things happen — cool words, or no words is the way to go.

This is fatuous nonsense. Peggy Noonan, of all people, should know that the mainstream media has different standards of conduct concerning Democratic and Republican politicians. Surely, she understands that the liberal press put Romney under greater scrutiny in a single press conference than they have with President Obama over the past 3½ years.

Let us remember that something violent happened in Iran during their “elections” and all President Obama could say is that the United States should not been seen to be “meddling” and, as always, The Anointed One got a pass.

Strangely, the toughest thing Noonan had to say concerning President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was that they were “shying away from the higher meaning this event.” That’s the understatement of the century. President Obama and Hillary Clinton can be described with many qualities. Shyness isn’t one of them. I would be more inclined to describe their behavior as appeasing and cowardly.

As for Romney, had he said nothing he would have been assailed for his silence. If Romney had said something and not expressed his anger and outrage he would have been criticized for not expressing sufficient emotion and lacking compassion at the loss of American life. As far as the liberal press goes, Mitt Romney is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.

Now it may be true that Romney isn’t doing himself any favors with the liberal media but she should not conflate their sentiments with those of the majority of the American people. So long as she does so, it is Peggy Noonan who isn’t doing herself any favors.