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Why I Want Giuliani to Win the Republican Nomination
Share / Recommend - Comment - Print - Friday, Oct 12, 12:32PM
Back and forth political tides in America are part of the once globally envied system of checks and balances in our democracy (though there are days I really don't feel like we are anywhere near the democratic standards we used to boast in our pre-9/11 history).
While it is well known that I would have strongly supported Chuck Hagel for President, I am also convinced that a Democratic President would be healthy for the nation -- as long as that Democratic President put an end to many of the most self-destructive trends initiated by the Bush administration. I don't unconditionally support any Democrat, and also for the record, there is much in Mitt Romney's profile (his old profile) that I could support.
But let's roll ahead and be politically incorrect for a moment and speculate on winners and losers. No offense to any of the candidates!!
I think Obama has a very solid chance -- but he's not yet doing any of the key things he needs to do to seem like a serious alternative, a better alternative, to Hillary Clinton. He's not savage enough. He's sort of a hybrid Humphrey - McGovern - Adlai Stevenson personality right now, and she comes off as a shrewd master of a political and policy machine second to none.
I'd love to see Edwards doing better -- and frankly -- he's in the best spot of all of the contenders to get a boost from the growing economic anxieties in America. A mega-billionaire global investor told me recently that he thinks America is already in recession -- which means that there may be a political aftershock (that always comes later) that helps propel Edwards in the early primaries. If the economy can get ginned up as a real issue, Edwards is in a far better position than most of his rivals to address it seriously.
But Hillary is the frontrunner -- and she is going to have a Republican challenger.
Guffaws aside for the moment, I don't think that the race will be a slam dunk win. Mitt Romney would be a formidable challenge for Clinton -- and his distance as a former Governor would inoculate him from responsibility for the war. As things look now, I think he'll beat the field he's up against -- including Giuliani and Thompson.
The solid-faith South will find a way to support a solid-faith Mormon candidate, and then Romney has a national security advisor, Mitchell Reiss, who is a class act.
If the war is going really, really badly -- and the main street Republican conservatives are ready to launch a coup against Bush & Co., then Romney could bring on a Chuck Hagel as VP running mate. I know it's hard to imagine today -- but could happen.
If the economy is the dominant theme, and the polls show that Romney needs to shore up his Southern flank, then Mike Huckabee will be invited to join the ticket in my view.
A Romney/Hagel ticket or a Romney/Huckabee ticket would give nearly any Clinton ticket a seriously tough race.
That's why Dems should do all they can to run against one-note Johnnie, Rudy Giuiiani. His foreign policy advisory team is the dream list to run against. Giuliani's pal, Bernard Kerik, sweetens the pot, and there is so much more there to put in headline news every two to three days.
Newsweek just ran a graph of Giuliani's foreign policy team. As Daniel Pipes just emailed me, it's all screwed up. Five of the six listed names have the wrong photos.
But kind of like the false metaphor of a global war on terror that needs to be completely disaggregated into component pieces to be understood, this list of high profile neoconservatives need to be known individually for what they do and what they think rather than just a list where the names and faces don't matter.
So, for the record -- Peter Berkowitz's picture is on the Daniel Pipes profile. Daniel Pipes' photo is on the Martin Kramer profile. Norman Podhoretz's picture is on the Nile Gardiner profile. Martin Kramer's photo is on the Norman Podhoretz profile. Nile Gardiner's photo is on the Berkowitz profile. Phew. . .
But this mismatching of names and profiles doesn't change the essential point is that Giuliani would be an ideal nominee to run against. Please. Please. Please.
More later.
-- Steve Clemons
Reader Comments (12) - post a comment
They are interchangeable warmongering robots, so Newsweek's screw up isn't as bad as it could be....
newsweek pictures are all screwed up... make that the issue and stay away from the important details... welcome to america in 2007.. going downhill fast.
Religious Republicans are now starting to train their guns on Rudy. Direct mail is on the way, as are on-message attacks. I think his numbers will slide...polls show most don't want a prochoice nominee, and large numbers don't know RG's position. Polls also show him losing to Hillary, and that's also ammo.
And contrary to GOPThink, the war is not a plus with general election voters.
Regardless, I can't see him winning the general even if he were to win the Nom.
Steve,
Mr giuliani is at best a wholesale liar who has scammed well over $100 million dollars from his 9/11 speeches and security consulting.
Only a complete idiot (like rudy) would not say or do one thing about terrorism for years after the 1993 WTC bombing - and, in fact, then decide to put the NY top security center right next to the Towers in WTC7!
And now, of course, he claims he was right there at Ground Zero for days, when the true heroes and emergency workers only saw a few brief appearances only when the tv cameras were present. Oh, and no updated radios were ever given to NY police and fire and emt personnel long before 9/11. rudy must have gotten confused and so busy figuring out which wife or woman he was chasing.
Incompetent is not strong enough a word for this schlub!
And DO NOT ask me about his okaying of emergency personnel breathing the cancerous air around Ground Zero. DO NOT go there.
BTW, NYers roundly booed mr guiliani at Yankee Stadium earlier this week when his mug was shown in the Yankee big screen.
If enough voting people are fooled into thinking this guy should have more notoriety than a mug shot in the post office, he's a definite for putting our senator in the WH. No doubt Hillary would probably bless him with some Clinton task as she measures for new curtains, all done in thanks for making her win a walk in Central Park.
You all make my point. A Dem win is much more likely running against Giuliani that most of the alternatives.
Thanks -- great posts.
Steve Clemons
I think Romney is the only Republican who has even a ghost of a chance in 2008, and that only because he's a bit of a cipher, and good-looking enough.
Giuliani is an arrogant, stupid, crooked, pyschotic creep; Thompson looks senile even compared to 1984 Reagan; McCain---he's so out if it I find it hard to remember he's in the race; and the rest all have no chance.
So yes, I would love to see Giuliani as the GOP candidate---not least because I know that Hillary would push his buttons like a pinball machine and turn him into a puddle of jello in any public debate.
Wow, Rudy would be the first cross-dresser candidate, but shouldn't he have shaved off his "womb broom" for this?
OTH, a Romney candidacy might just scare American Jews back to the Democratz.
It's all so bizarrrrre, it's difficult for me to take any of it seriously anymore. The only candidates I could support don't have a snowball's chance.
Kathleen,
Jews already vote for the Dems in overwhelming numbers.
Marky... since 9/11, I know many Jews who used to be Demz, but now vote for Busholini because they think he's tougher on terrorism and stronger on Israel over Palestine. In the midterms, here in CT. many who were angry at Lieberman for his stance on Iraq, were effected by the spate of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon and stuck with Joe Lieberman. I know several Holocaust survivors and sometimes am invited to attend their monthly meetings and scarilly, many like Bush and Newt the Brewt.
I prefer your take on it though and hope you're correct.
Kathleen,
Off the top of my head, I think Jews used to vote about 90% Democratic in national elections. That may have dipped after 9/11, but there was still an overwhelming majority who voted Democratic.
MarkL.. that's encouraging. Maybe there will be an end in sight, after all.
I found this piece on the end of a thread from HuffPo. Your ideas only reinforce my conclusions: The neocon Jews are the new Nazis and Giuliani is a Mussolini clone. I think it will take a real civil war here in America to stop them.
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