Is Rudy Giuliani the Howard Dean of the 2008 presidential campaign ... or the Ross Perot? Meaning, will he burn bright in the GOP primary, only to flame out when voters get a load of his wife-swapping, negro-hating, pro-abortion, gay friendly, gun-not-so-friendly makeup? Or ... will he burn bright in the early going, only to drop out like a punk-ass beeyatch.
To the headlines!
From RawStory, proof that Rudy don't know diddly about foreign policy, specifically in Iraq. Giuliani stumbled on the softest of all possible interviews, outside of a tete a tete with the Bushbots at Fox "News" Channel: the velvet gloves of the Today Show. He fumbled a question on his support for Bush's "troop augmentation" (it will make Iraq perky!!!) and called Anbar province "Anwar" (maybe he's got crude oil on the brain ... mmmmmm... crude oillll.......) And then he added this:
GIULIANI: ... We can measure that. We can measure -- I think, it's nine sectors in Baghdad -- how much violence is there now? How much violence is there the week after, the next month, the month after. You know, I'm kind of familiar with that using the Comstat program in New York.
HOST: I was going to say to you, sir, what does a mayor know about what's going on in Iraq? On foreign policy?
GUILLIANI: I've spent a great deal of time talking to people about it. I've been on 91 foreign troops in the last five years. I've been in 35 different countries. Right before the speech on Iraq, I met with, maybe, ten or twelve people with differing viewpoints. People who wanted to pullout, generals who helped craft the strategy. So, you know, you try to learn as much as you can about these issues.
Yes... you do try, don't you...
How many months shall we guess before we're faced with video of the Giuliani scream...?
Meanwhile, the folks at Political have a piece up about the doubts being expressed by Giuliani friends about whether Uncle Rudy possesses the necessary seriousness to run for president:
Failed 2000 N.Y. Campaign Casts Shadow Over Giuliani's 2008 Ambition
By: Jonathan Martin and Ben Smith January 24, 2007 02:27 PM EST
Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani is finally scrambling to beat back a crippling perception that his bid for president isn't quite serious. But even as he begins to hire aides and consultants, many of his New York supporters and critics, as well as neutral observers, see a repeat of his half-hearted, unfinished 2000 campaign for Senate.
"At this moment in history I do not believe he's running for president; I just don't believe it," said Mike Long, chairman of the Conservative Party of New York State. "I don't know of anyone who's gotten a call saying, 'I'm running, I need you to get behind me,' same as happened before."
"I'm having a real hard time believing the guy is taking it seriously," said a former Guiliani aide, who said that he would love to see him become president. "In 2000 there was this feeling that he didn't have to play by all the rules that little people have to play by, and I see that even more strongly now."
The question for this year's Republican primary is whether voters can expect the Giuliani of his first winning campaign in 1993 -- a studious, disciplined, hard-working candidate -- or the indecisive, disorganized, reluctant candidate of 2000, carried by spectacular public polling and national Republican hopes toward a confrontation with Hillary Rodham Clinton until he flamed out in May.
"Here's a dossier of confidential Giuliani campaign documents of which the campaign lost possession in early November. The documents appear to have been prepared by Giuliani's chief fundraiser, Anne Dickerson. Some personal information, largely cellular phone numbers, was redacted. To download the document, right click here and select Save Target As... See Ben Smith's blog for a guide to the document."
To many in New York, it's starting to look like 2000 all over again with Giuliani drawing the biggest headlines of late when an aide lost possession of a binder containing detailed fund-raising plans and worries that his personal and business life could scuttle his campaign; that 140-page dossier, first published in the New York Daily News, is available online today at Politico.com.
His aides declined to make him available for comment.
The Giuliani fame clock appears to be in full tick.
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"[T]he practice of arbitrary imprisonments, have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.' Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 84, August, 1788
