For my money, Rudy Giuliani ran the most entertaining campaign of any Republican presidential candidate in 2008. Sure, Huckabee had that weird story about “earning your desks” and Mitt busted “Who Let the Dogs Out” on some unsuspecting youngsters, but only Rudy’s cell phone stunt rose to the level of something you could imagine Chris Elliot doing on Letterman. And even if Huckabee ate squirrels, he never screamed about ferrets.
And the fact that Rudy Giuliani spent 50 million dollars to win a single delegate seals the deal.
That’s why I find all the hoopla about a Giuliani run for Senate or Governor of NY a little comical. Here’s a sample from a reader in today’s Washington Post Fix chat:
Washington, D.C.: Regarding Caroline Kennedy and Gov. Paterson, I am reminded of a joke about two campers in the wilderness. Upon being discovered by a bear, who we would call Rudy and who might run for either the governorship or the Senate in 2010, one camper asked the other, “Do you think we can out-run the bear?” The other, more experienced camper replied, “I don’t have to out-run the bear. I just have to out-run you.”
First of all, this picture ought to put to rest the notion that Rudy is a bear. And then there’s this poll, for example:
David Paterson (D-inc): 51
Rudy Giuliani (R): 41
Bear in mind that Rudy likely has higher name recognition in New York than Paterson (even though Paterson is governor) and that, more generally, challengers with sky high name recognition typically have no where to go but down, as Rudy demonstrated himself in the 2008 Republican primary.
Why the fixation with the idea that Rudy is such a great candidate?
aarrgghh
because "shut up!" that’s why!
Rick Taylor
Rudy Guiliani scared the crap out of me. He seemed the most enthusiastic for getting us into another war, and he was popular enough I thought he might win nominated.
Chris Johnson
Cheers for the obscure Wailers reference :)
Michael D.
Why the pic of Rudy in drag? Wasn’t that a charity event? Posting that is something a Republican would do.
DougJ
To prove he’s not a bear!
jibeaux
Because Republicans are morans.
SATSQ.
I am aware of all internet traditions.
DougJ
His support for the gay community in New York is truly commendable, though, in all seriousness.
Texan New Yorker
I think the idea stems from the fact he actually was well regarded as a mayor, if a little ridiculous and slightly draconian. He gets more credit than he should, but certainly the guy at the helm as NYC managed to completely revamp itself deserves at least some recognition for it.
That said, New York can differentiate between the Giuliani that cleaned up the city, and the crazy son-of-a-bitch who’s been ingratiating himself with the biggest morons in his party for the last 6 years or so. Further, his scandals were palatable when NYC needed him, but that’s no longer the case.
Republicans, however, have not yet realized this fact, so they see him as their ‘in’ to compete in statewide elections in New York again. Not realizing that Giuliani overstepped his bounds long ago with New York, they push him as this challenger who has real hope for contesting seats. That ship has sailed, but it’ll take a humiliating defeat of Giuliani at the polls for them to appreciate how much New York has been lost to them over the past 6 years.
I think only guys like Bloomberg whose connection to his party hangs by a thread are distant enough from the crazies for New York to consider them, and even then they’ll stay face an uphill challenge against any Democrat that can walk and breathe at the same time.
DougJ
Don’t give me too much credit, I know it via the Clash.
fester
For the same reason that Sarah Palin is being touted by some as an amazing politician that America does not deserve because she is so amazing. S/he pisses off liberals and that in and of itself is a good thing.
Guiliani is an affirmation of authoritarian asshole-ism which guarantees him strong initial recognition and weak name recognition support in the Republican primary electorate. The problem is that he sucks as a candidate, does not want to do the hard work neccessary to win, and is a Class A and Type A lying asshole and is apparantly so on TV instead of just in private….
srv
Rudy is a brilliant man. But for the fact that the terrorist attacked a building that just happened to contain the NYC emergency command center, his decisive decision making would have been able to save more lives.
DougJ
As a longtime upstater, I don’t think his act will ever play up here. It may play better here than in Alabama, but he’s strictly a 212/646/718 guy, politically.
blogenfreude
@Texan New Yorker: He was once my mayor. I remember when he was running around the city trying to close down art exhibits he didn’t like. He made the police department even more thuggish than it was and spent much of his time getting even with those he thought had crossed. He spent our money running out to the Hamptons to fuck Judy Nathan (while married) and we paid for security for her as well. He is a dangerous sociopath.
Gebghis
Rudy should be put in charge of cleaning up and fixing New Orleans. Say what you will about him – he did clean up Manhattan. There’s also poetic justice in Republicans being involved in cleaning up the messes their guy made.
Congress can authorize the $$$ it will cost. Put Rudy in charge and Pat Fitzgerald in charge of looking over Rudy’s shoulder – as well as dealing with the built-in level of corruption in LA.
Just a thought.
Best….H
Comrade Dread
Wingnuts love Rudy because they see 9/11 sparkles flying about the room whenever he appears on television.
They’re still stuck in the 2001 mindset where George Bush was an inspiring leader and Rudy was the tough, but loving daddy figure who could heal our hearts and protect us from the bad men.
The 70% of the rest of America was moved on and now realizes that acting competently in the aftermath of 9/11 did not make up for being stunningly incompetent (or batshit insane, or a raging authoritarian) after the immediate crisis passed.
MikeL
Why the fixation with the idea that Rudy is such a great candidate?
9/11
comrade rawshark
Because he says what people say they want to hear.
I think Rudy perfectly illustrates the difference between what rank and file regular average Americans think the republican party represents and what it actually represents. The people wanted Rudy, he spoke like a right wing radio listener, the party chose what it wanted, someone who will do their bidding economically. They really don’t care about 90% of the shit they send out as talking points. I wish I could convince my talking point drunk friends of this, or any right winger. Problem is they won’t listen to us. We can talk all day about flipping John but John turned because he saw things on his own, it wan’t because we told him anythng that made him see the light. We actually made it take longer (the whole Jane Hamsher thing probably added two months on it’s own).
linda
because rudy! is america’s mayor … and rudy! is a tough-love daddy that the limp-dicked commentariat thrills to …
demimondian
@MikeL: You forgot the noun and the verb.
Zifnab25
Rudy wasn’t entirely incompetent, which is more than can be said for his southern state counterparts. However, his shtick got old in NY and his popularity declined. Wingers haven’t realized this though and still think they can reclaim deep blue NYC with a taxoholic neocon. That is why dead ender Rudy out raised Huckabee in the field of ten or twenty to one.
Geeno
As a New Yorker, I watched Rudy’s presidential run with some amusement. He’s one of those guys that the more you see him, the less you like him. I laughed when his numbers plummeted in Florida right after he started to actually campaign.
He was going to get pummeled by Clinton in 2000 before he dropped out of the race and offered up Rick Lazio as a sacrificial lamb. His own wife and kids were working to torpedo him.
There are LOTS of people in NY waiting for Rudy to come back so they stick the knife in like he did to them, and Donna Hanover (Rudy’s ex-wife) still has lots of friends in high places.
Atanarjuat
Because Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was the calm rock of assurance in the storm of fear immediately after the Twin Towers were destroyed. He showed resolve, leadership, and helped New Yorkers through the worst of the worst.
Mock him all you want with that lame "noun and a verb" insult, but the record is clear and Giuliani was indeed America’s Mayor, and he would make a great Senator.
DougJ
What does that even mean? Is it like when Sandra Bullock was America’s sweetheart?
Texan New Yorker
@blogenfreude, I realize the man has a lot of negative qualities and has angered a lot of people. I was referencing his art exhibit fetish and the like with my reference to him being draconian/ridiculous, but given what we’ve seen in the last 7 years it seems almost cute and innocent.
The point I’m making is that he has quite a few people who remember him positively, but would never, ever vote for him today, and more still who hated him from the beginning. The majority of his support has long since eroded, but since Giuliani became ‘one of them’, and was once voted by their ‘hated enemies’ (as we liberals certainly are), the hard right see him as electable, and only a humiliating defeat is going to show them otherwise.
Finally, DougJ, I believe you on that one, but it’s a distinction that not a lot of people on the right are going to understand to make, not appreciating the dichotomy between NYC and upstate. So they just see him as ‘electable Republican in NY OMG AWESOME’.
And the media, we’ve all long since learned, don’t pay attention and don’t particularly care. He’s a big name, he’s a Republican, and him being unelectable isn’t as interesting a story as, "Can Giuliani pull off the upset?"
Tsulagi
And to prove he’s not afraid of color. You could caption that photo “Republican starburst.”
Comrade Kevin
@Gebghis:
That reminds me of something people used to say about Mussolini.
canuckistani
Can I top the obscure Wailers/Clash reference with an obscure Specials reference – "A Message to You, Rudy"?
mistermix
Yep,and the wingnut positions he took when he ran for prez will make good ad fodder to alienate the 212/646/718’s, if they’re not already sick of Rudy.
DougJ
I think you did. I don’t think “Rudy can’t fail” is such a spectacularly obscure reference — it’s on London Calling — so you beat me for sure.
The Grand Panjandrum
@demimondian: Is that you Mr Vice President-Elect?
Rudy’s got too many skeletons in his closet. You think his buddy the former police chief was the only one on the take?
@DougJ: Good for him. And Bush’s funding of AIDS programs in Africa is commendable but that doesn’t change the fact that he’s a War Criminal.
Rudy will stick to the private sector. He can make more money and will not be scrutinized like he was in the recent campaign. (If that’s what you want to call it.) Personally I think he was just getting people to pay for a private jet while he mugged for cameras and stayed in posh hotel suites. He’s an asshole, but he isn’t stupid.
Zifnab
@Atanarjuat:
For instance, he did a great job of standing there and… uh… looking Presidential. He was a rock, in that he basically just occupied space while the rest of world moved around him. That was some real resolve, leadership, and help he provided New Yorks. So much so that the NY Firefighters freak’n love him.
Zifnab
@Comrade Kevin:
Not only did he beat up the commies, but the trains ran on time.
jake 4 that 1
Fxd.
The Grand Panjandrum
@Zifnab: Bush hop scotching around the country and looking dazed and confused made Rudy look like a pillar of strength. I think a lot of people got suckered by his exterior calm and mistook it for personal strength. Such an attribute is admirable in my estimation, but it can’t be the only redeeming quality in a leader who wishes to be effective.
jonas
For a lot of pathetic right wingers, Giuliani was the Platonic form of a GOP candidate — John Wayne, but with a little New York/Italian brio thrown in. He’s good at one thing: posturing. But that’s what conservatives love. Can he express outrage at the right things in the right way (unions, criminals, immigrants, liberals, the media, etc.)? Does he actually have any intelligent policy proposals or solutions for things like the economy? Not so much, but who cares? Did you hear the way he totally ripped the liberal media?
Neue Internetprasenz
His dentures will form a break-away party and split the vote.
Gus
He has the one trait that Republican prize above all others in a candidate. He’s a total fucking asshole.
jibeaux
I haven’t seen Big Tuna for a while, when did he start leaving off the "Country First" peaceout? Is country second now, or further down the list, maybe somewhere between "restocking cheetos" and "mailing silly putty"?
roseyv
Tell you a little-known story about Rudy Giuliani. By way of explanation, my parents were both volunteer paramedics in Suffolk County, Long Island, which at the time (and I believe still) had no paid, professional fire or ambulance departments, so emergency services were provided entirely by volunteers like my mom and dad. Mom eventually became the first woman president of a local ambulance company in the county, and later went to work for the county in another capacity. As a result, she had at least passing personal relationships with a number of people in local government, who, pretty much to a person, loathed Giuliani for as long as he was in office. This was irrespective of party affiliations — they couldn’t stand the guy because his constant media-grubbing and attention whoring often made it extremely difficult for them to get their jobs done. The thing is that, contrary to what a lot of people think, Long Island isn’t part of NYC (except for that part of it that overlaps with Queens). The mayor of NYC, whomever it may be, has absolutely no political jurisdiction over LI, but Giuliani never liked to let a little thing like that stand in the way of interposing himself into any juicy local news story.
Case in point: In 1996, when Flight 800 crashed into the Long Island Sound? There was the usual, predictable logistical nightmare of needing to organize search and rescue operations, coordinate local law enforcement and EMT services on the scene, trying to keep the surrounding area clear, find survivors, obtain and relay relevant information back to the families, etc. The communication center was based out some local facility — I want to say MacArthur Airport, but I may be misremembering. In any event, the families and friends of the people who had been on the flight were asked to wait there, and news was being passed along as it was discovered. Everyone on the scene was doing a pretty amazing job, and everything was going as smoothly as possible, given the horrific circumstances.
Unfortunately, wherever the families were? Was of course where the news cameras were going to be. And where the news cameras were, that was, naturally, where Rudy needed to be. Problem was, it wasn’t convenient for Rudy to be all the heck out on the ass-end of Suffolk County at that time, so he needed to get the cameras to a location that worked better for him. But how? Why, simple.
Move the families.
That’s right. Drag the poor, suffering survivors of the victims of this horrible plane crash back over into Rudy’s jurisdiction. Move the families, and the cameras would follow. Ingenious! Never mind that this totally obstructed the chain of command and distribution of information that had been established, and which had been working nicely up to that point, and as a result, nobody could get any information regarding the search proceedings, the families were hysterical and furious, and of course it was all the fault of the Long Island officials, because they were suddenly doing such a lousy job of keeping the lines of communication open.
All this, mind you, despite the fact that this had nothing whatsoever to do with Rudy Giuliani, that it hadn’t happened on his turf, that he was in no way involved in the rescue efforts, etc. The important thing was, Rudy got some face time on the national news that night.
Lovely man, our Rudy. Really cares about people above everything else.
aarrgghh
i liked neocon apostate francis fukuyama’s amusing postmortem observation on the giuliani mystique:
Jay B.
@Atanarjuat: Because Mayor Rudolph Giuliani was the calm rock of assurance in the storm of fear immediately after the Twin Towers were destroyed. He showed resolve, leadership, and helped New Yorkers through the worst of the worst.
Suck it douchebag. He helped me, a New Yorker before and after 9/11, in no way at all. So stick your fucking "rock" up your ass.
He was an idiot who put his own command center, all butch like, in the very structure that had already been attacked. He was an asshole who torpedoed the FDNY’s budget in a way that ensured dozens of firemen died when the Towers fell and helped fuck up their recovery. He was a buffoon who wanted to foist a greedy fuck like Bernie Kerik on the world. He was a toad who, along with Christine Whitman at the EPA, helped foster the lie that the air was safe at Ground Zero. And that he had a moment of humanity during 9/11 it only underscored his racist, divisive cynicism before it and made his bloodlust after it particularly disgusting.
That he was able to profit handsomely off his "national security" cred is a testament to how stupid people are when they are in a panic.
The final truth is that Rudy, like most New Yorkers, handled the fact of the disaster better than anyone else in America — but it was Giuliani, and not the average New Yorker, who decided that the best way to move on from that tragedy was not to cope with it, but exploit it for all it was worth.
Tony J
Semi-interesting fact. Mussolini only made one train run on time, the one that took him from Milan, where he’d been hiding in case the ‘March on Rome’ by his supporters backfired, to Rome, where the King had offered him the Prime-Ministership.
Other than that, all the improvements in the Italian rail-system had already been legislated for by the outgoing government.
Thank you Stephen Fry, and goodnight.
AnneLaurie
And when you say this to those Republicans who are members of the Plantation Party, they hear "He kept those people in line. Put him in charge of America, and any attempts at rabble-rousing by the qweers, the nigras, the wetbacks & the democrats will be met with beatings and incarceration. And if we’re really lucky, he’ll let us watch the most Jack-Bauer-worthy videos on our TVs!"
AhabTRuler
The Global War on Squeegee-men!
Ash Can
Entirely off topic, but IMO worth it: Those of you in the Chicago/WTTW (Chicago’s public TV station) viewing area can tune in tonight at 8 PM CST to catch a never-before-aired episode of the restaurant review program "Check, Please!" featuring Barack Obama (from his community organizer days) as one of the reviewers. (For those of you unfamiliar with the program, each week the host has several different regular-joe Chicagoans/suburbanites sitting down in a discussion-group format. Before the show is taped, each person suggests a restaurant for the other reviewers to visit, and each person must visit the restaurants suggested by the other reviewers.)
The episode was taped in 2001 and never aired. Why not? Because (according to my husband, who’s very good at finding scuttlebutt like this), out of all the reviewers on the program, Obama dominated the program to such an extent (all that MUP charm, don’tcha know) that the producers weren’t sure what to do with the damned episode. So they stuck it in the can and left it there — until tonight.
Bon appetit!
Just Some Fuckhead
Ash Can, think you can record it and post it on Youtube for those of us who aren’t in the Chicago area?
bago
Don’t knock the bear model. It can lead to fun times.
demimondian
@Just Some Fuckhead: Not to be a spoilsport, but I doubt that the YouTube management would be grateful for that action.
Please — go to wttv’s site and view the stream directly.
Zifnab
@bago:
I’m a big fan of bare models.
Just Some Fuckhead
@demimondian: I think they prolly don’t care based on all the other stuff on Youtube. And they usually don’t start caring until folks like wttv ask them to. And with wttv being public television, maybe they don’t care either. But really, what’s it to ya? Is this just more of yer I-am-not-a-lawyer-but schtick?
Fencedude
@demimondian:
And it’ll be all over the internet anyway.
BC
Yeah, 9/11 because all of our leaders were hunkering down shitting their pants scared of another attack and Rudy walked down the street and answered questions. That’s it – in comparison to the others, he looked like a towering figure. The fact that he is an authoritarian asshole who thought Bernie Kerik was such a great guy – and who tried to foist said Kerik onto DHS – is beside the point. If you’re still under the bed waiting for the next wave of Islamofascists, then Rudy is your guy. Not sure how many of the NY populace meets this criterion.
Ash Can
@Just Some Fuckhead:
@demimondian:
Actually, it’s a moot point in my case, since I’m a technological dinosaur and don’t know the first thing about posting stuff on YouTube. Hell, I’m doing good if I can work this keyboard thingie…
Brett
Didn’t he turn down an opportunity to run against Hillary Clinton in 2000, back when he actually had credibility? Supposedly, he didn’t like the idea of being among 100 equals in office.