Noonan says Bush needs to lighten up.: I don't like light beer. It ain't beer

Peggy Noonan chides Bush for being unyielding, for being the oak and not the willow.

If Bush stopped being so damn loyal to his people, if Bush would stop being so dogmatic about his policy, then maybe the criticism would stop.

Sorry, but I like the mighty oak.

If this White House is all George Bush, nothing changes or shifts, nothing hits refresh unless he does. He is a tough and stubborn man, a brave one too, and he leads with his heart. These are virtues, or can be. The presidency can break you - we've seen it break presidents - and he does not intend to be broken. But one senses he fears to bend because if he bends, he breaks.
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In the end it doesn't matter if White House staffers suddenly listen to critics, to non-pre-vetted policy intellectuals, to questioners, complainers, whiners, Wise Men, if you can find them, and people who actually have something to say. But it does matter if George Bush does.

It matters that he becomes his broadest self and comes to tolerate dissent, argument, ambiguity. That actually would be daring. It would mark not the appearance of change but change, not the appearance of progress but the thing itself.

Or, perchance, Bush's vision is the right vision for the times. Sometimes, staying the course, regardless of political opinion, is the right course.