The annals of political rhetoric are full of forgettable phrases and more than the average amount of vacuous rhetoric. H.L. Mencken once wrote of Warren Harding that his inaugural address was "so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it," that it drug itself out of the "dark abysm ... of pish, and crawls insanely up to the topmost pinnacle of posh."
Few high-profile pols plumb that particular abysm these days, but Rudy Giuliani's ad-writers seem intent on exploring those lost lingual lands. His latest ad, running in Florida (of which he is running for president), asserts that on -- wait for it -- 9/11, "When the world wavered, and history hesitated, he never did."
Ignore for a moment the Rudy-was-stronger-than-the-rest-of-the-world rhetoric. History hesitated? What in heaven's name does that mean? Time was in danger of grinding to a halt until History's Mayor sprang into action? This is what's commonly known as ... gibberish. Gold-plated nonsense.
This follows on his ring-in-2008 campaign ad which, talking about the Benazir Bhutto assassination, bemoaned "a people perverted."
As Josh Marshall noted:
The whole people is perverted? Depending on how you interpret the ad, Rudy's either saying that Muslims as a people have been 'perverted' or the people of Pakistan are perverted.
Either way, that seems more than a little problematic.
Giuliani's bizarre primary rope-a-dope -- sit on the sidelines and yell 9/11 in the hopes that it will cause the rest of the field to fold -- has drawn plenty of chuckles, but I for one hope he lasts long enough to produce a couple more nonsensical pearls.
The answer came to me - because the freaking jerk put the emergencey command center at the World Trade Center and it was under several hundred tons of rubble. And he put it there because it was better for photo ops and close to where he and Judith could meet and discuss world affairs - but he never did it in the White House so he must be a moral upstanding individual.
Last time I looked, Rudy had one committed delegate - maybe he is planning to be the power broker at the Republican convention - if W ever gets that bridge fixed in Minneapolis.
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
He then proceeded to destroy what credibility he had gotten for his fine handling of the immediate aftermath by trying to stay on in office after his term expired. Which was typical Giuliani crap. But those of us who lived through it here remember that for a little period of time right after the attack, he unexpectedly rose to the occasion and for a bright and shining moment acted with grace, compassion, honesty and strength, and spoke for and to the city in a way that is rare to see in anyone's lifetime.
It did not make him fit to run the city in normal times, it did not make him fit to run the country in any kind of times - but Rudy was excellent for that one shining moment. It's long gone, and will never come again for him, but it will always remain as a wonder and a marvel.
I wish he'd retired on that high note.
We heard soon after the smoke had cleared that the police and fire radios were either dysfunctional or incompatible.
Just after the 9/11 attack, when I heard that the police and fire communications system STILL had not been fixed, I thought:
"Giuliani will be crucified."
History hesitated... but now...
It's about time.
In the same vein, Archduke Ferdinand was warned not to go to Serbia, but did anyway, and that was the straw that broke the back and broke out WWI.
History doesn't hesitate. Leaders do, and when they do, they cease to lead. They become bystanders like the rest of us.
What a hero.