THE DAILY BLADE: How Resilient Is Rudy?
After Rudy Giuliani told CNN’s Dana Bash that he favors taxpayer funding for abortion, Chris Suellentrop posted an item in The Opinionator blog (Times Select, subscription required) titled, “Is Rudy Toast?” and noted that, “In a matter of hours, the commentariat shifted from speculating that Rudy Giuliani is the front-runner for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination to wondering if his campaign just self-destructed.”
Conservative pundit John Podhoretz went so far as to write the candidate a “Dear Rudy” letter in the
I still think you stand the best chance among the candidates in the Republican field of winning the general election in 2008, and I think you have it in you to be a great president.
But something strange is going on with your candidacy - something that doesn't reflect the conduct and behavior of the Mayor Giuliani whose ferocious competence and clarity are what have led me to advocate your nomination for more than a year now. ("Nominate Rudy" is the final piece of advice I offer for all those who don't want to see Hillary Clinton become president in my 2006 book, "Can She Be Stopped?") …
As a presidential candidate, you seem to be winging it these days - giving off-the-cuff, ill-considered answers to delicate questions. If you keep winging it this way, you're going to fly off a cliff.
For example, the answer to your pro-choice difficulty with social conservatives on the matter of abortion isn't to blather about how much you "hate it" and then ruminate on whether the government should be responsible for helping pay for one. That's what you did last week, and you must never, ever do anything like it again - if, that is, you actually want to become president.
The answer to dealing with the abortion question is to do what you did as mayor - to master the issue the way you mastered the weird particulars of zoning law in
[A]s a presidential candidate … [y]our words can hang you, and many of those in the audience are hoping to serve as the executioner.
But Rudy’s fans and potential voters don’t seem to share Podhoretz’s alarm – even those who cheerfully admit that they disagree with the brash New Yorker on many, if not most, of his positions. Writing in The Politico several days after Rudy’s supposedly campaign-crippling gaffe, Roger Simon describes the scene as Rudy kisses babies, hugs dogs and signs autographs up and down Market Street in Charleston, SC (“the town where the Civil War started … [a]nd a state where Yankee politicians are often viewed with some suspicion”):
They call his name - "Rudy! Rudy! Over here, Rudy!" - and take his picture and, though often lacking both paper and pen (he will provide both), they ask for his autograph.
Jane Bolston, 64, who comes from Williston, S.C. … stands in the middle of the street talking to me as Rudy and the crowd around him swirl by.
"You just get discouraged with everybody else in the race but him," she tells me. "We are ready for a change …
"I believe in Giuliani," she says. "It was 9/11 that made me think he is the one. Do I care that some people think he is not conservative enough? No, that doesn't bother me.”
Giuliani is selling competence, not ideology. He ran
So I asked him earlier in the day if being mayor of
"Being mayor of
Not that he thinks it is going to be easy.
"It is the most difficult job in the world," he told me. "And running for it is almost as difficult as the job itself."
But not today. Today, running seems pretty painless.
Yes, Rudy’s selling competence but he is also selling something else: The willingness to tell voters the truth about where he stands on the issues, as opposed to Mitt Romney, about whom The Washington Post writes:
There are things in politics that money can't buy, and chief among them is the quality of authenticity: the ability to convince voters that a candidate is more than the sum of positioning by his or her handlers. Last week, former
This posturing [as an avid hunter] became a particular problem for Mr. Romney in large part because it reinforced the existing narrative of the governor as a politician willing to change his ideological stripes to fit the political environment of the moment. Mr. Romney's views on subjects ranging from abortion to gay rights to gun control have changed - "evolved and deepened," the candidate says - as he has made the transition from running as a Republican in a bright-blue state to seeking the nomination in a process dominated by a conservative base.
On the other hand, the WaPo editorial suggests that Rudy may be “too real”:
[W]hile Mr. Romney was shooting himself in the foot by trying to portray himself as something he is not, one of his rivals, former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, was causing potential problems for his own campaign by doing just the opposite: restating his previously expressed views. …
In the context of Republican Party politics, Mr. Giuliani's candor could be as problematic as Mr. Romney's positioning.
The obvious pitfalls of telling voters the truth notwithstanding, The Stiletto agrees with the WaPo’s bottom line:
[W]e suspect that in the end voters will have more respect for forthright politicians with whom they disagree than for ones who seem as willing as Mr. Romney to mold their political personae to the needs of the moment.
What remains to be seen is whether Rudy can keep recovering from repeated episodes of saying what he means and meaning what he says.
Manatees Have A Cow Over Losing Endangered Species Classification
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering whether to reclassify the FL manatee as a “threatened” species instead of an “endangered” species, though more of the sea cows were killed in 2006 than in the previous 30 years. The Washington Post reports that of a total population of roughly 3,200, 416 of the marine mammals were killed last year - many in collisions with boat propellers. The planned reclassification would ease restrictions on how fast boats can go (no-wake zones), as well as on waterfront development in manatee habitats. Lobbyists for boaters and developers argue that the manatee population has stabilized and is large enough. The Fearless Leader of the Manatees (below left) is preparing a PowerPoint Presentation to make the case for his constituents remaining on the Endangered Species List.
Editorial Note: The Stiletto is having a major hardware meltdown involving her PC. She will make every effort to publish The Stiletto Blog on Friday and Monday using a borrowed laptop and WiFi connection. Even if the worst-case scenario comes to pass and she cannot publish for a couple of days, there are hundreds of funny and/or snarky items on the site – including the FAQs – which you probably haven’t gotten around to yet, so this will be your chance to catch up. Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience and indulgence.
Comments