Goodbye, Rudy Giuliani

So Fred Thompson's campaign has ended. With any luck, Rudy Giuliani's campaign will end next week.

Watching Rudy Giuliani fall from the top of the polls has been an enjoyable experience. I won't lie. I've enjoyed it because Rudy himself seems like such a miserable, unhappy guy. And I've enjoyed it because Rudy has become a man who is desperately trying to sell 9/11 in order to benefit his pockets, and his campaign. Watching Rudy constantly talk about September 11th is gross.

But the truth is that when Rudy began this campaign, he was the hero of 9/11, the guy who took charge in the chaos of that horrible day. That's how the country saw Rudy; he was Time's "Man of the Year."

But the truth about Rudy turns out to be much more complicated. America found out that Rudy put his emergency management bunker in the place most likely to be hit by terrorists. He did not fix the radios that caused communication delays between firefighters and cops when the terrorists hit the World Trace Center in 1993. He said that the radios were not fixed because of bureaucracy - not a way to instill confidence in the people you want to vote for you because you are a guy who can stand up to a bureaucracy.

And as Rudy kept campaigning, more of his personal problems emerged, the kind of problems that New Yorkers already knew about, but the overwhelming issues that the rest of the country did not see coming.

First, there was Bernie Kerik, Rudy's driver and the man Rudy promoted to run the NYPD; there was Bill Bratton, fired from the NYPD because he was getting too much attention for the reduction in crime; there were Rudy's girlfriends, there were the millions Rudy made as a "security expert" based on 9/11; there were the firefighters who felt that Rudy rushed them to clean up the Towers, at the expense of their own health.

And there was Rudy himself. He could not stop talking about 9/11. As Joe Biden said, Rudy's sentences consist of a noun, a verb and 9/11. Rudy's constant invocation has become a running joke.

Then there are the stories that show that Rudy is a bitter, petty man who often seeks revenge upon those whose merest transgression is to disagree with him. After going through eight years of George W., who surrounds himself with "yes" men (and women), you would have to be a glutton for punishment if you opted for the candidate whose aides had a nickname that says it all: they were called the "Yes, Rudys."

With the benefit of hindsight, it has become apparent that Rudy ignored Iowa at his own expense. By staying away from the first caucus, he failed to stay in the news, he seemed afraid of middle America, and he failed to counteract the negative stories in the press with positive stories of his own campaign.

By putting commercials on in New Hampshire, and then fading there as people got to know him better, Rudy gave people around the country another compelling reason to vote against him: when people first see Rudy, they don't like him that much. When people get to know Rudy better, they detest him.

As time goes on, the Giuliani campaign grows more desperate. Physically, he looks worse for wear. His campaign is taking on desperate overtones: attacking John McCain, even talking more about 9/11.

For Rudy, this campaign will end in a few days. But the damage to his life - that will go on forever. Rudy will no longer be the hero of 9/11. He will be the man who tried to capitalize on 9/11. He will not be regarded as a savior, but as a huckster, a man who took and took from our great day of tragedy to benefit only himself.

There is a line in "Death of a Salesman," spoken by the desperate salesman himself, Willy Loman. Willy says to his wife Linda, "You know, the trouble is, Linda, people don't seem to take to me."

In the end, Rudy took from us, and we did not take to him.

Comments

[ignorantwillyharper]

To make it short, Rudy was found to be a crook...but a good one at that.

[hu.man]

Counting Giuliani out is a mistake. By doing what he has done, he is demonstrating that he is a tactical man. He is now sitting on the precipice of having either had the most ingenious tactic to win the presidency or the biggest blunder ever committed in a presidential campaign (given that he was the front-runner not too long ago). Although it is possible that he will manage to somehow save face after all it is said and done, but the polar extremes I pointed out earlier are the more likely outcome of Giuliani narrative in this campaign season.

[swedefl]

Not to mention Rudy is a 3 time darft dodger...
man is a coward.

[thinkenterprise]

PLEASE DO NOT BE UNGRATEFUL AMERICA
RUDY HELPED NY AND AMERICA THROUGH THE PAIN OF 9-11
THANK YOU RUDY
MAY GOD BLESS YOU

[MichaelWright]

In early 2004, there was a rumor that Bush was going to dump Cheney and pick up Giuliani as running mate. Eager to do a favor for him, OU president David Boren, a former U.S. Senator who likes to bet on all the horses, had Giuliani to the campus for a speech and paid him $100,000 (from public funds, of course). Boren has been trying to use OU for a springboard to get back to Washington ever since he resigned, mysteriously, from the Senate in 1994. After Boren started reading the signals, he dumped Giuliani and began to court Bloomberg, while hoping for a goodie if Bloomberg were elected President. That is why he exploited OU resources on January 7 to put Bloomberg and himself in the limelight with his "bipartisan forum" extravaganza.

[apolloknowsall]

Matt--wow, such love.

Hate is so not attractive. Why you gotta be hatin' on Rudy? I know, you like the crime and murders that New York used to have and wish that you go back to those good old times when you could pay somebody fifty bucks to do your dirty work, but law and order is the name of the game and people like you don't like being punished when you break laws, which is why you don't like Rudy. BTW, I am not a Rudy supporter for President, I just can't tolerate hate. Disagreement, ok, but the vitriol does not help.

[Tankan]

Oh My! Looks like the failure is about to fail again!

Clearly a very slow learner!

[Rockwell]

I'm thinking about getting a couple of Parrots, naming them "Rudy" and "Chimpy" and teaching them to squawk "9-11! 9-11!".

That's all Rudy and the Chimp are - a couple of incompetent bird brains that used an American tragedy as an obscene grab for power.

[snesich]

While Giuliani is deservedly going down the tubes, let's think about some of the Hollywood duds and has-beens who are supporting him: Adam Sandler, Kelsey Grammer, Robert Duvall, Jon Voight, Ron Silver and Melissa Gilbert, and the poor excuse for a "comedian" Dennis Miller have all made their noses brown for "Mr. Profit Big from 9/11", along with Brad Grey and 24 producer Joel Surnow. (Duvall actually held a fundraiser for Giuliani at his Virginia horse country home.)

Giuliani's Hollywood errand boys also include the right-wing producer Lionel Chetwynd, Steven Spielberg's attorney Bruce Ramer, former studio heads Frank Price and Frank Mancuso, Naked Gun director David Zucker and the pathetic game show bum, Ben Stein.

Most of these people, of course, are Grade C, no talent lackeys. Some were once great actors---about three or four decades ago---but are now sadly washed up. But most are very low on talent and ability and were perhaps trying to hitch a ride on what once looked like a rising star. Maybe they were hoping to cash in with favors from a Giuliani White House. (Fat chance now, guys!)

So, when we're all looking back at the laughingstock that was the Giuliani presidential run, let's remember who his "celebrity" supporters were and judge these dullards accordingly. If anyone will actually remember who they are in a few years...

[bigfated]

Goodbye, good riddance! JulieAnnie is a loud mouth idiot. Sort of a copy of our current "Idiot In Chief,"....and we've certainly had enough of these kind of assholes running our country. It's time for Rudy to claim illness...and drop out of the race.(Like he did when Hillary was about to trounce him in the N.Y.Senatorial campaign). There is absolutely no way his campaign will survive----and if my prayers are answered---he will lose Florida by at least 10% points. It's over Rudy. Please! Just go the fu&* away!

[Sceptic42]

Frankly, I don't mind if Giuliani sticks around for a bit longer, because his persistence only hurts John McCain, who is the Republican's one long shot at the Presidency. I'd rather Rudy and John split the warmonger vote, giving the nomination to Huckabee or Romney, neither of which would, I think, seriously challenge Edwards, Obama, or Clinton.

[WIDESTANCE]

9iu11iani has a long history with electronic voting going back to his early days as nyc mayor when he was trying to get the first electronic machines in the state of ny installed in the bronx

sequoia voting machines are installed in the top three (by population) voting districts in florida - this is the same company 9iu11iani was in bed with back in those early nyc days

9iu11iani partners/sage has a history of dealings with overseas companies specialising in internet/electronic "security"

vote rigging and corruption is endemic in florida and the corrupt republican machine has had 8 years to perfect the process - sarasota county, in 2006, had 18000 missing (and largely democratic) electronic votes (sequoia machines again) in a race the republicans "won" by a very small margin

it doesn't take a genius to connect the dots and see why rudi is so confident in his florida "strategy" and no one should be surprised if he comes up a "winner" despite every indication and prediction to the contrary

[randyw]

I loved this artical it really says it all! I too have really enjoyed Rudys fall from grace maybe a little too much! That is the great thing about elections they let you know what assholes some of these guys really are! I have felt for years that we could'nt get a worse president than Boosh ...then along comes Rudy!
I also feel that the current crop of GOP candidates are the worse bunch of kooks and flakes I can ever remember! The Republican Party must be absolutely desperate in 2008!

[Villon]

Tough talking, brawling, counterpunching, street-fighting Rudy. What utter crap. Not one of these guys, Rudy or George W. or the whole lot of them have ever been in combat or laced up the gloves or even got it on in the street. They've snowed the mainstream media for years with their contrived tough-guy images. For the rest of us, the stench is unbelievable.

[GiggidyGeshmoygen]

Kudos on a well written and concise postmortem, although i fear it may be premature.

Florida is one of the most politically corrupt states in the union, where Republicans have blatantly, openly and repeatedly rigged and cheated elections. One has only to look at the Jennings/Buchanan debacle of 2006 in Sarasota county to understand that Rudi may well have good reason to believe in his so-called "strategy".

I, for one, will rest easier after Giuliani has been well and truly vaporised in the glare of the hot Florida sun just like any other life-sucking vampire ever known to man.