I've been thinking about this one for a while.
So, um, Rudy Giuliani is running for president. The whole Super Tuesday strategy is interesting, and I hope it doesn't work. Except that he's beatable, but I wouldn't really wish that campaign on the nation, in all honesty.
But more interesting, to me, is how most of the New York print media I've seen is taking every opportunity it can to basically run up the flag, wave its arms, and yell "Hey, wait, America! Wait!!! This is a baaaad idea!". Part of it is trying to figure out, I think, what the Giuliani mayoralty meant for the city, in the era of Bloomberg love, and part of it is a real deep-seated crankiness at the difference between what he did as mayor and what he says as candidate for president. The city forsaken, or something.
Case in point was the New York Magazine cover story called "He has seen the enemy and it is...us", arguing that what New York can be, Rudy is against now. But the Times has been the most regularly pugnacious. This latest three-page above-the-jump story about Rudy's wacked-out way of doing things sort of captures it, for me. If it were a dude with a megaphone going cross-country with the same message (Loyalty at any price! Vindictive! Mean to his ex-wife! Shady dealings!), no one would take it seriously. Heck, if it were a grass-roots anti-Rudy campaign, it would look petty and strange. But the Grey Lady sics herself on Rudy, man, and watch out. They've got the chops to go and find the poor dude from the Bronx whose life got messed up. And the figure of $7 million in civil rights lawsuits and retaliatory damages during his tenure? Can that really be true?!
Then again, maybe I just notice it more because it's a hometown paper. What I can't figure is how the campaign keeps insisting that he'll do great in New York and Jersey. Aren't those people the ones who regularly read the Times? What does the Post have to say?
Anyhow. I'm feisty because rowing was great, and I tried a cauliflower thing again and it was yummy, and I found the German version of "Cash Cab" again. Quiz shows are a great way to practice a language.
posted by Wabes @ 1/22/2008 03:38:00 PM
6 Comments:
Dad claims in fire fighter circles, FDNY guys are pretty adamant about getting the (bad) news spread about Rudy.
i...am obviously less than neutral when it comes to national media coverage of rudy's local crimes. you have heard my choicest horror stories in person, wabes, so we'll nod to those, confuse the rest of the internet, and leave it at that.
what i will say is that if sins of christmas past don't bite rudy in the arse, his behavior in the next few months will. he's incapable of muffling the temper discussed in the times piece, and of disguising the nasty tendencies he exhibited in his senate campaign against hillary clinton and his early digs at mitt romney in the republican debates. i want his campaign to end ASAP, but there's a part of me that, i'll admit, looks forward to seeing rudy's worst side in the national spotlight. he doesn't need detractors to point it out; he'll flash it himself, given half a chance.
aside: my dad adored that times piece.
I think/hope he's done after Florida, but re: his NY support - the upstaters who love visiting the city still give the man credit for making it safe and governable (e.g. my politically unpredictable Dad, since Father's keep getting shout outs in the comments).
Rudy never got votes from the UWS or the Bronx - and he never will. But, should he last, upstate New York could become his Staten Island...
I have a two friends who have gone so far as to sport the Rudy bumper sticker. One of them is not a US citizen and has never lived in New York. The other one... well, I think it has something to do with a traffic ticket avoidance strategy. (Same friend claimed the Bush/Cheney bumper sticker was the saving grace twice when it came to staring down the NJ state police.)
I am not sure yet where I would need to defect should Rudy get elected - or even get the Republican nomination. Suggestions? Infinitesimal odds, but I like having a back-up plan.
k - i'll be in berlin for another month and a half, and can always extend my lease... ; )
the conversation does seem to prove Kolz's point that we are often united by the people we dislike -- even if that dislike is (largely) in the public and abstract persona someone presents.
ames, who does your dad think the firefighters will endorse? are they mccain men, or could they go hillary?
I guess there have been rumblings about supporting McCain or Edwards, not much said about Hillary... The IAFF has, however, set up a nasty website about Rudy-->www.rudy-urbanlegand.com
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