Rudy Giuliani deployed a bit of revisionist history on Monday, when he glossed over the death of 241 American servicemen in his efforts to frame Barack Obama as dangerously unready to serve as Commander in Chief.
Playing off comments today by Sen. Joseph Biden - in which the vice presidential candidate said that Obama would face a major world test early in office - the former New York City mayor argued that past Republican presidents had never been handed such a trial by fire.
"It has to mean that Joe Biden continues to harbor serious doubts about whether Barack Obama is prepared to be Commander in Chief," he said. "I would remind Sen. Biden that it is not uniformly the case that the mettle of presidents are tested. No one tested Eisenhower's mettle. No one tested Reagan's mettle."
Historians may take issues with such a recounting of events. Ten months into Reagan's time in office, a U.S. Army barrack stationed in Beirut was attacked by a suicide bomb, killing hundreds of servicemen, and leading to the withdrawal of the international peacekeeping force from Lebanon.
Now, Biden said Obama would be tested within six month. So Giuliani could hang his remark on a four-month discrepancy. But I think it's fair to say that Hizoner simply needed a second example of a new president not having to face a abrupt international crisis and Bill Clinton wouldn't do the trick.
Giuliani, nevertheless, brushed history aside, and wrapped Biden for not even having confidence in his own running mate (even though what the Delaware Senator said was more a statement of history than an analysis of Obama's posture of foreign policy strength.
"I don't ever recall a vice presidential candidate predicting that the election of their candidate for president of the United States would invite force in the world to test the mettle of the person elected," said the former mayor. "It has to mean that Joe Biden continues to harbor serious doubts about whether Barack Obama is ready to be Commander in Chief."