Politics / Republican National Convention Noonan: 'Over' Didn't Mean Mac But she does apologize for 'vulgar epithet' By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff Posted Sep 4, 2008 7:19 AM CDT Copied Sarah Palin, left, is joined by John McCain, right, and daughter Piper at the end of her speech at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) See 1 more photo Columnist Peggy Noonan has been catching flak since being caught on tape saying "It's over" during a frank assessment of John McCain's veep choice. But the Wall Street Journal writer insists she wasn't pronouncing Mac's White House hopes dead —she was simply remarking that the days of the GOP's base being connected to mainstream America are over, she writes. Noonan, who said she feels "mugged" by the media after the flap, also apologized for using a "vulgar epithet" during her informal comments during a break on an MSNBC television panel. She used it while blasting the party's drive to chose a candidate not for experience, but for a person's effective role in an intended "narrative"—what the party hopes to communicate about itself. (More Republican National Convention stories.) See 1 more photo Report an error