Today's date is November 21, 2014. Illustrating Peggy Noonan's newspaper column today is a photo of Ronald Reagan's funeral. Ronald.. sweet Ronald... Peggy hath not forgotten you.

This man we have in the White House, today—does he have fiber? Does he have character, and morals? Does he have the manly, sun-kissed visage of a true leader, who might go by the name of, to pull an example out of the thinning air, Ron, or Ronald—perhaps a "Ronald Reagan?" Dame Peggy Noonan thinks not.

Peggy Noonan is an 800 year-old broken record and half of her fucking column today is about Ronald Reagan who has been dead for a decade and yet her column is still the most popular thing the Wall Street Journal publishes. Go figure.

My theory: it's because of Peggy's insight as a scientific analyst on the issue of climate change.

And there is the Keystone XL pipeline and the administration's apparent intent to veto a bill that allows it. There the issue is not only the jobs the pipeline would create, and not only the infrastructure element. It is something more. If it is done right, the people who build the pipeline could be pressed to take on young men—skill-less, aimless—and get them learning, as part of a crew, how things are built and what it is to be a man who builds them.

On top of that, the building of the pipeline would show the world that America is capable of coming back, that we're not only aware of our good fortune and engineering genius, we are pushing it hard into the future. America's got her hard-hat on again. America is dynamic. "You ain't seen nothin' yet." Not just this endless talk of limits, restrictions, fears and "Oh, we're all going to melt in the warm global future!"

Which is sort of the spirit of this White House.

Great presidencies have a different one. They expand, move on, reach out.

Forget devastating climate change. "America is dynamic." Forget basic chemistry and science. Great presidencies "expand." Forget a global push for alternative energy sources. We should build the Keystone pipeline so that "aimless" young men can learn "how things are built and what it is to be a man who builds them."

Staunch Republican Wall Street Journal readers: do you even take this woman seriously? Serious question.

[Photo: Getty]