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Grand Illusion
Rudy Giuliani is slipping, if not quite sliding away. In early polls he led Hillary Clinton and every Democrat and was pulling away from the Republican pack, having benefited much from John McCain's gracious decision to set himself on fire.
Back then the smart money--and it's a wonder they still call it that-- fretted that Hillary was 'unelectable'. Today she beats Rudy in every poll. Among Republicans he's again in a dead heat, this time with B-list TV celebrity Fred Thompson.
A poll's a sometime thing; as in college sports, it's rare in politics to debut at number one and stay there all season. But there's a darker cloud on Rudy's horizon than just some poll-- his record.
Our politics is such that we know more about Rudy's personal foibles than his performance in office: He's on his third marriage. He cut his second wife loose in a press conference. His children favor other candidates. Every other day it seems he blurts out something strange.
Rudy claimed he spent more time at Ground Zero than the rescue workers, prompting Salon's Alex Koppelman to tally up: 29 hours in 90 days, far less than the workers and, half the time he spent coming and going to Yankee games.
He told London reporters he was one of the "four or five most famous Americans in the world." It's a good thing he wasn't in Paris; he might have said he was Napoleon.
As mayor, Rudy was always popping off. When the mother of a Latino shot by police while lying on the ground called into his radio show, he talked over her, misstating key facts and blaming the victim's death on his upbringing.
Rudy hopes we'll accept his nutty truculence as the price you pay for a guy who can handle the terrorists. After 8 years of Bush's chronic distemper voters may go for the nice guy or gal, in which case he's toast. He needs an electorate fixated on terrorism so he can sell himself as sheriff.
The worst thing that could befall Rudy would be if every voter went out and bought a copy of Grand Illusion by veteran New York journalists Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins. The book is a meticulous deconstruction of Rudy's performance on his signature issue before, during and after 9/11.
Grand Illusion exposes Rudy's alleged core competency regarding terrorism as a fraud. It also mercilessly depicts the cronyism, poor judgment and cash and carry politics that were the hallmarks of his years as mayor. The book is no partisan screed, its authors being content to let the facts make their case. Some examples:
On 9/11, the heads of his police and fire departments were Bernie Kerik and Tom Von Essen. Kerik had been Rudy's driver; Von Essen a friendly union official. Between them they'd taken entry level management exams three times and failed each one.
The Office of Emergency Management was headed by another Rudy loyalist, Richard Sheirer. Sheirer spent most of his career as a fire alarm dispatcher. Along came Rudy. He was soon a senior manager in the fire department and ultimately top dog at OEM.
Rudy and his three musketeers spent 9/11 walking north from Ground Zero, searching for a command center. Over the objections of the city's public safety professionals, and prodded by Republican influence peddlers, they had put the city's emergency command center at the Twin Towers, a site deemed one of the likeliest targets of terrorist attack.
So on 9/11, Rudy and company had nowhere to go. Worse, they had no one to talk to. It had taken them two terms to select a new communication system to replace the city's 1960s vintage two-way radios. When they finally did, it was in a no bid contract with a politically wired supplier who sold them untested equipment.
The equipment never worked. On 9/11, all the firefighters had were radios the city had called "obsolete" and "totally inadequate" 11 years earlier. Rudy would later tell spellbound audiences that fireman in the towers ignored orders to evacuate. In fact they never received them.
Barrett and Collins found not one instance of Giuliani, Kerik, Von Essen or Sheirer issuing orders to anyone that day. But as Bush flew about the country, Rudy walked in plain sight and spoke defiantly. On those words and pictures his campaign rests.
Amazing as it may be, Barrett and Collins show that prior to 9/11 Rudy's interest in terrorism was virtually nil. It makes sense. How else do you end up facing catastrophe with no command structure, no command center and no communications system?
Rudy conflates terrorism with domestic crime, using his image on crime to burnish his image on terrorism. But the former is mostly smoke and mirrors. In New York City crime began to fall under Giuliani's predecessor David Dinkins. All over America crime fell throughout the nineties. The biggest drop came in the category regarded as least tractable: serious, violent, urban crime.
Demographics, economics and public policy all played a part. At a national level, Bill Clinton banned assault weapons, put 100,000 cops on the streets and used RICO laws to put away urban gang leaders. Rudy contributed, but his specialties were inflaming racial divisions after public emergencies and, of course, taking credit.
After 9/11 Rudy made a fortune billing corporations and government for "security consulting." His new company was little more than a turkey farm for Sheirer, Kerik and other hacks from his city hall days. Apart from some lobbying and PR strategy, what they sold was the chance to be identified with Rudy Giuliani, America's mayor, hero of 9/11.
Republicans desperately need new wedge issues to perpetuate their strategy of divide and conquer. Gay bashing is turning off younger voters. They've won as much of the abortion fight as they can afford to. Stem cells and creationism make them look like idiots.
In the nick of time they discover "Islamo-fascism" and just the candidate to sell it. It's a stark message: our safety lies not in vigilance or reason or rule of law or diplomacy or conservation but rather in an armed struggle so endless as to make the cold war seem like a matinée. Forget about corruption or lost liberties; they've made us an offer we can't refuse.
Hollow tough talk, ignorant ideologues, incompetence, cronyism, poorly equipped men and women putting their lives on the line-- sound like any president you know? Here's hoping Rudy falls early. It's too painful to imagine one grand illusion following another.
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Ghouliani for President !
Of Zimbabwe.
I remember my brother and his friends talking about what a clown Giuliani was.They should Know.they are all employees of NYFD and told me about a lot of the screw ups and how him and his team of clowns were destroying morale in the city.Not just in the fire dept, but also the sanitation,water and sewer,transportation.He had all of the unions up in arms at one point or another.He better run for the hills,because his true track record is shown by his record with his multiple wives and his personal life.How must he be conducting himself when he's on his 3rd wife.Give me a break!!!
The Republicans really have no one of substance running except possibly John McCain. At least I can disagree with McCain without feeling like I'm disagreeing with an idiot without any honour. Of course, having no substance didn't stop Bush.
Personally, I would rather have the political parties return to the convention system rather than publicly funded primaries. The convention system produced most of our good presidential candidates who were presented to the voters in a campaign season lasting four or five months and was less susceptible to the corruption of money than the current neverending campaign. Primaries tend to favour candidates with narrow political range especially appealing to those with authoritarian impulses. Conventions favoured selection of candidates with consensus support of the party.
Let the parties present candidates who have some consensus behind them rather than candidates of the nuts on the right and the left. Let them present platforms that once again, mean something and give voters a clear indication of policy directions rather than a list of planks that are mere statements without coherence or real support. Variations on the convention system continue to serve other democracies well in Britain, Canada, and Australia.
I hope Rudy realizes what a fool he is before he embarrasses himself next summer. He should quit the race because he has soo much baggage he's surly gonna be picked apart from head to toe by the Dems and hasn't got a chance once the gloves come off. I liked Rudy before 9/11(I'm a lefty too), but since then he sounds like a schill for "The Fear Factory" coming from Washington DC. His shallow logic is so transparent, it's obvious he's either playing the "fear" card or IS ACTUALLY AFRAID. Take your pick. I think he's old school and thinks from the past, always looking in the rear view mirror....
The good thing about having the candidates out there for a long time is so that the public can better know what they are like. Rudy looked unstoppable months ago. But with conservatives gaining on him, he is in danger of becoming like the liberals' favorite Republican; McCain. Compared to Hillary who will most likely be the Democrat candidate, he is much better since he attended funeral after funeral of police officers and firement while Hillary only attended those that were covered by the media. She also has the black smudge of being part of the 9/11 murders by having one of her friends placed in the Justice Department to construct the infamous wall of separation which prevented the FBI from investigating the terrorists her husband refused to deport by at least 1999 who murdered over 3000 on 9/11.
Who knows? Maybe it will be Mike Huckabee running against Obama if Hillary explodes for some reason.
After nearly eight years of having whatever we have had as president, can we please have someone presidential? Rudy is more of the same, a clueless, coarse yahoo. One thing can be said for elitists, they tend to have intelligence and style which, at least, makes any possible lack of substance bearable.
Aside from all Hillary's qualifications to
make a brilliant president:
We need a woman President to bring love
and kisses to Uncle Sam, who has been tortured
with a brutal beating by a thorn-filled Bush
wielded by a Cheney-Rove ax-machine.
We need a woman President to wash and scrub
away the crud and poison that has contaminated
the White House from Elephant dung.
Go get 'em, Hillary.
Great piece....should be on the front page of every newspaper in this country!!! The picture says it all....FREAKY!!! Thanks Mr Curry now lets carry the message throughout the land.....
All this posturing and campaining by Rudy, and other republicans, are just to win the primaries, and have nothing to do with the general election. Rudy is just trying to prove to his party that he is tough on terrorism, tough on the war, tough on move on, and tough on Hillary. None of this stuff has any effect on Hillary or any other democrat. During the primaries, they are running in different elections with different constituences. Since 80% of the republicans favor the war, and 75% of the rest of the country are against it, It would be very interesting to see how they would defend their positions in the general election.
I'm starting to think the big-lie strategy is evolving into the big-idiot strategy. If no one can believe you are that big of an idiot, then they'll think you know something that they don't.
Or maybe Giuliani saw how far Bush got with that approach and decided to adapt it as a strategy, because he couldn't be that big of an idiot, could he?
It's really not nice to criticize anyones facial expressions......but Rudy sure looks like a fool in this picture........taking a call from his wife while speaking at an event sure shows his stupidity!1 NO WAY WILL I VOTE FOR HIM.........BESIDES HE'S A REPUKE!!
Speaking of the white-haired guy with a mortgage, let's give credit where it is due. So, I want to give my sincere thanks to China for sending toxic food, medicines, toothpaste and toys to the USA. I finally have a valid reason for getting off the stupid Christmas-gift carrousel. We feel obligated to purchase things from a communist country at inflated prices so we can feel the pain in January when sales are announced. Religion takes on a new meaning when one factors in the restriction in which only a church approved by the state offering a programmed service can survive.
Since China dominates the shelf space, I suppose I could turn the other cheek and buy so that the huge retailers can report a "good holiday season" However, I have suffered too many years of having my "slapping cheeks" abused and have decided to move the venue to my "kissing cheeks" this year. Each family can do the same by issuing a check to each member of the family and when the turkey is served, all stand, tear up the check and shout "Hallelujah".
Ron Paul might be good. How about thinking about Biden or Edwards or Dodd? They may be of the establishment as well, what do you think? Or maybe a notch or two above the establishment? Maybe an improvement we have not considered while we focus on the front runners? And maybe not. Just thinking out loud.
I would be so happy if one of those three Democrats won the nomination. They don't have the baggage that Hillary does--even though she is tough--and I think any of them would be more than a competent candidate and a much-needed, fine president. Joe Biden has said that he would love to debate Giuliani. Ron Paul would be an improvement over any of the Repugs.
If it's not Giuliani, it'll be Romney or Thompson or maybe Huckabee. I think Hillary's up to any of them, but they'll probably pull out their bag of dirty tricks--especially those first two.
Be afraid of Ghouliani.
The war on Terror is fake.
And so is Ghouliani.
In the current political “chess match” where the best democrats have to offer is to break glass ceilings boasting of questionable left over health care plans and or open cerebral questions on if pigmentation is shades dark enough America is in for it!
The other side is worse with a virtual who’s who of SCUM-BAGS. Rudy, Fred, Mitt, and John have had more positions on politics than Anna Nichole had …well you know.
Let’s not forget all that DIRTY money that the above mentioned have raked in. The special interest group support will insure big corporations are served over the will of the people for the next four years. Bush is pushing hard for four more trade agreements at this time; will congress serve American interest or sell out again? American taxpayers have had their proverbial pajama flap down long enough!
I like many AMERICANS are sick of all this unpatriotic slop and I think I will stick my finger in the eye of the government and vote for DR. RON PAUL!
I encourage ALL AMERICANS to do the same! Or tell me a better plan !
ron paul is just as bad! he's yet another of the "this is a christian nation" nutballs who doesn't understand what the constitution is for!
christ people, i would have thought at least the huffington post was safe from the insidiousness that is ron paul propoganda. they may have their flaws, but at least most of the democrats seem to be a bit more logical about their politics, and not ready to storm off in another holy war on whatever the intended target (gays, abortionists, muslims, the middle class) happens to be at the time.
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