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Letters
Monday, January 28, 2008 12:00 AM

Punch-drunk Rudy

Giuliani's rope-a-dope strategy in Florida has included obsessive security and plenty of pandering. But it looks like lights out for his presidential bid.

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Sunday, January 27, 2008 09:24 PM

History

Rudy will go down in the history books as having run the worse presidential campaign ever.

After his forth place finish in NH, I had completely written Rudy off as even a consideration. NH was his own back yard, and I sensed that if he couldn't do well there, then he wasn't going to do well anywhere else.

So long Mayor 9/11, but look at the bright side, there are still Yankee's games that you can attend, and your legal battles against your ethics troubles are sure to keep you busy.

Sunday, January 27, 2008 09:35 PM

Love it

I am so looking forward to watching this chump crash and burn. Seeya, ghoulie!

Sunday, January 27, 2008 09:44 PM

rudy's petty meanness has caught up with him

a week or two ago the New York Times published an article about him; out of 150 letters only about 3 were positive. Most New Yorkers seem to truly hate the man.

Sunday, January 27, 2008 10:08 PM

It's a real shame

Giuliani would have easy to beat in a general election. Ah well, at least the Flip Flopping Mormon Romneybot is still in the race. Who let the dogs out? Woof, woof!

Sunday, January 27, 2008 10:43 PM

I've lived in New York for 25 years....

and Giuliani is the worst mayor EVER -- worse than Dinkins, who at least made the streets safe again.

So glad he's getting his come-uppance!

Sunday, January 27, 2008 11:24 PM

Loathing in NYC

I have to say the perspective from NYC on this man is not pretty. The sheer hatred of the man is a real unifying force in New York. I think he is a lot more popular upstate than he is in the five boroughs. The attitude here is that the idea of him as "America's Mayor" is a farce, that nobody likes him in his own city, and that people in Florida have no idea who the man is, so why the heck is he betting his whole campaign on them? Obviously, it didn't work for this arrogant man outside of his home turf.

Monday, January 28, 2008 02:11 AM

_Yes_...

I've been looking forward to _this_ particular crash-and-burn for some time. Giuliani wasn't fit to be a city clerk, much less a mayor--and as president he would have been unthinkable. Somewhere Diallo and Dorismond are laughing themselves sick--and rightly so. Sayonara, suckah...:)

Monday, January 28, 2008 02:18 AM

Rudy, a Message To You

I'm so loving the fall of Giuliani. It's long overdue for this neo-fascist blowhard to topple, and how great that it's his own hubris that did him in. Time to disappear from public life once and for all, Il Douche.

Other things the spectacular failure of Giuliani's campaign reveal is how absolutely full of it the mainstream media's handicapping of races and candidates is, and how vital the bucket of icewater of actual voting is to shake off the media-induced stupor. Viva voting!

I mean, a year ago, it was all Rudy, all the time -- he was one of the gliberal media's favorite press-anointed candidates, and enjoyed immense prestige, backing, and favor from the self-appointed king- and queenmakers. Too bad all that media puffery just didn't translate into actual on-the-ground results -- it's Fred Thompson all over again, and could even be a preview of the Clinton candidacy.

It also reveals how little room there is in the GOP for a candidate who bucks their Brimstone Base -- Giuliani's personal 9/11 of a family life doomed him with the "family values voters" that dominate the GOP's rank-and-file. Somehow, a messily (and repeatedly) divorced, cross-dressing, gay-loving, abortion-supporting fascist wannabe wasn't a good fit for the GOP's everyday people. They probably loved the last bit, but hated the rest.

If somebody like Giuliani couldn't cut it in the GOP, then there's no hope for a return of the so-called "moderate Republican" or, God(tm) forbid, the "liberal Republican" of days past (that role has long been snapped up by the DLC/Blue Dog Democrats). The GOP today is all reactionary, all the time -- line forms to the right...the hard, hard right.

Good riddance, Rudy. Pick out a timeshare in Florida; you're so done (even the mouthbreather early-voters won't save you in the long run -- they may have voted while still under the influence of the media spin, but the actual here-and-now voters are going to smoke you).

Monday, January 28, 2008 02:30 AM

I Appear To Be The Only Rudy Fan Who Owns A Computer

Yep. I'm seriously torn up about Rudy's soon-to-be fourth place finish in the primary. To all the people who think McCain's so electable, just wait until Hillary starts sailing into him for saying we should stay in Iraq for a hundred years. Rudy was the only Republican who could have won; he's been out of office for so long no one can blame him for anything that's gone wrong the past 8 years. And he was actually a good mayor, New Yorkers' hatred for the guy notwithstanding. I mean, who can trust what a New Yorker thinks about anything anyway? You folks hate A-Rod too.

Monday, January 28, 2008 03:50 AM

Asher's computer needs an upgrade

It seems that Asher is a step behind. Rudy's imminent demise may soon be matched by Hillary's thus when Asher hypothesized that Rudy was the only GOPer who could beat Hillary, he missed the target a little. Who's going to beat Obama? Hopefully no one although I still, in a corner of my heart, wish it would be Edwards.

Today Ted Kennedy will endorse Obama. Yesterday, Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg did. Those endorsements from two Kennedy icons may seal the deal for Obama because they will cover his weakest spots.

I share a Catholic heritage with Rudy and although my Catholicism may not quite be what the Vatican thinks of as Catholicism, my attitudes towards politics are formed by the Gospel of St. Matthew and the over-riding, over-arching obligation to love. To paraphrase Vince Lonmbardi's comment on winning: Love isn't the most important thing, it's the only thing.

Another hang-over from my Catholicism is a distinct aversion to apostates who abandon their faith for reasons having nothing to do with faith. The example which upset the religious who taught me in grammar school and high school was the Catholic who became a Mason in order to get ahead in business. (That's a little ancharistic today, but a few decades ago it was prme time concern for nuns.)

In 1972, Rudy was a Democrat who supported George McGovern. However, to get ahead, he became a Republican and now burns incense to Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Ironically, Hillary went the other way, from Goldwater girl to Arkansas Democrat.

What they share in common, or at least what they project in common, is the "It's all about me" attitude.

You simply don't get that from Edwards or Obama. Obama, has the drop on Edwards because he has found away to articulate it better and excite a new generation of voters and like Hillary, we are infatuated with the historical aspects of his candidacy. Both Edwards and Obama do share one thing in common that Rudy lacks: they have authentic spouses. Both Michelle and Obama and Elizabeth Edwards are real persons in their own right. Judy Giuliani's first job involved killing dogs as a part of a SALES (!!!) demonstration and seems to be as involved with herself as Rudy is with himself.

Rudy the apostate is getting what he deserves. All politicians have to have strong egos but the best ones sincerely empathize. His personal life. as well as his political life, demonstrators a total lack of sincere empathy. It may be a day premature, but he's toast.

Rudy is not a tragedy. Hillary may be. But she made a devil’s bargain with Bill Clinton and one suspects that what kept her in her marriage is more ambition than anything else. She cries. Did she cry because of thwarted ambition or for the poor and literally dispossed. “Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.”

So my point to Asher is simply upgrade your computer. The struggle will be between Obama and McCain or Romney.

Here’s hoping that Romney’s millions buy him the Republican nomination. His empathy is on a par with Rudy’s. McCain is the real problem for Democrats. Don’t tell anyone I said that. Let’s keep it a secret.

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