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Dan Collins

Dan Collins

Posted: January 8, 2010 02:50 PM

How Could Giuliani Forget 9/11?

What's Your Reaction:

I went through the Christmas holidays believing I might never blog about Rudy Giuliani again.

He'd dropped out of every conceivable 2010 political contest, unless he's harboring a secret yearning to be state comptroller. He declared his attentions were focused on his business, and overseeing security for the Olympics in Brazil.

He hadn't moved out of town, but I was still willing to live and let live.

Sure, there was his penchant for showing up on TV talk shows to say something obvious and Republican, but who cared?

Then on Friday Rudy popped up on ABC, being interviewed by George Stephanopoulos. His mission was to portray Barack Obama as soft on terror, ho hum.

But in the process, Giuliani forgot 9/11!

"What he [Obama] should be doing is following the right things that Bush did -- one of the right things he did was treat this as a war on terror. We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We've had one under Obama," he said.

What about the World Trade Center????

Rudy Giuliani has spent the last eight years defining himself as the mayor who was on the ground when terror struck. How many times has he announced that Obama or some other Democrat of the day had forgotten the lessons of Sept. 11?

And now he's on national television announcing that there were no domestic attacks under George W. Bush.

Giuliani is a man who always likes to see himself as fighting against the forces of total evil. Over the last few years, he's put the Democrats in that category. Apparently his lust for battle is so great that it's wiped out his entire memory bank.

This wasn't a slip of the tongue. The cosmic error was his whole point. Giuliani has now not only written himself out as a candidate, he's officially disqualified to be a talking head.

And, by the way, Richard Reid the shoe bomber launched his failed terror attack on Bush's watch too. This would be a mere quibble, except that Bush tried Reid in a civilian court, and Giuliani has been loudly complaining about President Obama's decision to do the same with accused underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

 
 
 
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10:18 AM on 01/14/2010
This guy tried to build his political platform off of being the Mayor of 9/11! What a joke. William James the father of modern psychology said something like (paraphrasing) "the more outrageous the lie, if repeated over and over and over again, the more people believe it."

For their new platform, it looks like the republicans are consulting the same psychologists who agreed to witness those waterboarding procedures at Gitmo.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
bill123456
11:08 AM on 01/11/2010
Reps know their audience...

...the facts are not that important to them....

...most of them still believe Saddam Hussein attacked us on 9-11 and we did find WMD in Iraq...
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LMPE
I connect the most dissimilar things
12:33 AM on 01/11/2010
According to The Onion, Giuliani ran for president of 9/11.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
lisakaz2
Da ministero dell'interno di Snark.
03:05 PM on 01/10/2010
Rudy didn't forget, just like all those other GOPee pundits didn't forget. This is a campaign of disinformation. And it works when various interviewers fail to call 'em out on this purposeful lie. Just like Matlin claimed 9/11 was "inherited" by Bu$h, Rudy wants the same thing bought. They all think they can win this by repetition, to h-ll with the facts. That's why so many of these pundits keep saying this. It's not an isolated claim. Thus Rudy didn't forget; he just wants his listeners to forget.
03:19 PM on 01/10/2010
yes, they are trying to deliberately deceive people.

It's hard to see how any sane person could vote for these conservatives.
cafemocha
No kool-aid or tea: just caffeinated commentary
02:34 PM on 01/10/2010
Giuliani must have presided over the vote counting in Florida 2000!
No matter how republicans count, it never adds up.
cafemocha
No kool-aid or tea: just caffeinated commentary
02:15 PM on 01/10/2010
Republicans still get an A+ in fuzzy math!
At least 4 (count 'em, FOUR!) reported attacks:
1. 9/11
2. Anthrax
3. Shoe Bomber
4. LAX El Al shootings
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shryock
It never is what it is anymore
12:51 PM on 01/10/2010
he did not forget.
he is being republican.
the trick is to make YOU forget, and the republican task is to repeat over and over and over and over again the lie that there was not terrorist attack while bush was president and only the republicans can or ever did keep us 'safe'
the more often the republicans say it the closer it comes to truth. after all, why would guiliani lie? why would anyone lie about something that is so easily checkable? because the more often the lie is told and supported the more likely it is that some people will come to believe it. and it is working. there are clearly people in this country today who believe firmly that only republicans can keep us 'safe' because only republicans have 'proven' they can keep us 'safe' and that must mean that nothing bad ever happened under the republican administration, which means that we never look back because looking back is just looking for someone to blame and therefore the past never happened.
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lisakaz2
Da ministero dell'interno di Snark.
03:08 PM on 01/10/2010
Yep. Facts are inconvenient and must be forgotten by us.
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11:39 AM on 01/10/2010
...and since we're counting thwarted attacks along with succesful ones, wasn't there a carload of explosives found on a ferry from Canada, destined for LAX, that happened during the Bush&Dick years?
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11:34 AM on 01/10/2010
9/11, the shoe bomber, and... ANTHRAX ANYONE?
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08:42 AM on 01/10/2010
I shared this with 82 Facebook friends. These people will say anything to advance their agendas.
07:56 AM on 01/10/2010
The Republicans are seriously deluded. They are now blatantly lying constantly - the same talking point that there were no domestic terrorist attacks on Bush's watch. The quote from John McEnroe comes to mind "you cannot be serious!" But somehow, they keep getting away with it.
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ProfessorDuh
07:48 AM on 01/10/2010
Prominent Republicans who have so far said the 9-11 terrorist attack DID NOT happen during the Bush administration: Dana Perino, Mary Matalin, Todd Harris and Rudy Giuliani.
That is not happenstance or coincidence. That is enemy action.
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Ted Wordlaw
04:49 AM on 01/10/2010
In Chicago we call guys like Rudy an "Ambulance chaser". That's what Rudy did on September 11,2010. Then he tried to turn it into his 3rd run for mayor. Rudy is an opportunistic capatalist. I am amazed at those who hang on his words. But then I'm reminded that 33% of the american public is funtionally illiterate.
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iMissMollyIvins
Middle-aged, Middle class, Midwestern Populist
01:38 AM on 01/10/2010
Revisionist History 101 with professor 9ui11iani is now in session, please check your knowledge of shoe-bombers and Anthrax attacks at the door.
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JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin
Where's Mr. Darcy?
11:08 PM on 01/09/2010
The worst part of this is that George Stephanopolous didn't call him on it. I guess George felt he had to be fair to Rudy by allowing his lies to go unchallenged.
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02:04 AM on 01/10/2010
considering the hatchet-job he and gibson did during the democratic debate....i'm not surprised.