In today's paper, the good grey lady issued her endorsements for both of the presidential primaries, blue and red. What was striking and wonderful was the complete indictment of Mr. Guiliani - I do so love some schadenfreude on my morning commute.
It's been a conundrum to me, and to many other New Yorkers, to see how well Guiliani had been playing in the middle of the country. Happily, he's crashing and burning, and the anti-endorsement in the Times can only add fuel to that funeral pyre:
Why, as a New York-based paper, are we not backing Rudolph Giuliani? Why not choose the man we endorsed for re-election in 1997 after a first term in which he showed that a dirty, dangerous, supposedly ungovernable city could become clean, safe and orderly? What about the man who stood fast on Sept. 11, when others, including President Bush, went AWOL?
That man is not running for president.
The real Mr. Giuliani, whom many New Yorkers came to know and mistrust, is a narrow, obsessively secretive, vindictive man who saw no need to limit police power. Racial polarization was as much a legacy of his tenure as the rebirth of Times Square.
Mr. Giuliani’s arrogance and bad judgment are breathtaking. When he claims fiscal prudence, we remember how he ran through surpluses without a thought to the inevitable downturn and bequeathed huge deficits to his successor. He fired Police Commissioner William Bratton, the architect of the drop in crime, because he couldn’t share the limelight. He later gave the job to Bernard Kerik, who has now been indicted on fraud and corruption charges.
The Rudolph Giuliani of 2008 first shamelessly turned the horror of 9/11 into a lucrative business, with a secret client list, then exploited his city’s and the country’s nightmare to promote his presidential campaign.
13 comments:
It is so interesting. With the primary down here in a few days they say Romney is leading. This scares me about Florida voters.
Amen! I'm disgusted at how he uses 9/11 AT EVERY OPPORTUNITY. Sorry Rudy, it's not like you kicked Osama bin Laden in the face, Chuck Norris-style. Then, you'd have my vote.
zing!
I agree; I can't stand to hear Giuliani (or Bush, or ANYONE) use 9/11 to further their own agenda. Disgusting.
I'm a canuck but it wasn't too shocking that even the Times didn't endorse him - methinks he has squandered any good will he earned for 9/11.
Snap.
(However, my mean, sneaky little heart kind of wishes he would get the party nomination. Which is Bad and Not In The Spirit of Earnest Democracy, but true.)
Melanie's snap says it all!
You feel that way about Giuliani, and I feel that way about Romney.
What scares me? It shows people have LEARNED NOTHING from the 8 years of Bush, or worse? They've decided they like it. Masochists. Or sadists. Hard to say.
for what it's worth...in the 5 seconds of energy i give the Repubs, i use at least 3 of them to giggle at Giuliani's silliness.
and i hope i'm speaking for the entire western coast.
I just thank sweet Jesus that I am a Democrat. The Red side is a train wreck.
Excellent takedown. I am, though, getting scared of the McCain thing. Tell me if he the nominee dems will plaster every surface with that picture of him and Bush with McCain's melting birthday cake the day NOLA drowned. They will, right?
my husband was telling me i needed to look up that article. Thanks for doing it for me! ;)
I love this, chuckle. I've hated Guiliani ever since I saw him hogging the limelight after 9/11 at every funeral, every memorial.
Utter jackass.
Uck. I hate the man. Or at least, I hate his ideas. (I try not to say that I "hate" anyone. But still...sometimes it's difficult to disconnect the two. Ideas and person, I mean.)
May he indisputably crash and burn.
See, you're classier than I. I would have called that a SMACKDOWN. In fact, I believe I actually yelled "Oh, SNAP!" when I read that part.
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