Rudy Is Still The Frontrunner

[red states rule]

I love Rudy. I see him as the best man for the job right now. Libs, and some on the right, are trying to paint him as a liberal - but he is not a liberal


See Rudy Run
Why Giuliani, despite everything, remains the Republican frontrunner.
by Matthew Continetti
08/06/2007, Volume 012, Issue 44

Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, is wandering around a junior high school computer lab, smiling like a child. It's the early evening of July 18, and this is Giuliani's fourth campaign stop of the day. In a half hour or so he will take questions from audience members in the school's gymnasium. But right now he is pointing out and reading aloud the signs above the different computers in the lab, which say things like "Dam Control" . . . "Electrical Grid" . . . "Water Supply". . . .

"You know what this is like?" he says. "This is just like . . . a . . . an emergency response center!"

The glee with which Giuliani says this, the joy he clearly takes at being in a room that reminds him of places where he can be in charge, barking orders and leading others, helps explain his appeal as a presidential candidate. It's an appeal that many in the press and in elite Republican circles seem not to have recognized. The conventional wisdom holds that as grassroots conservatives wake up to Giuliani's differences with them on issues like abortion, they will ditch him in favor of someone else. That may be happening to some extent, but it hasn't knocked Giuliani out of first place or undermined the rationale for his candidacy. Despite his variance on some issues with some conservatives, a decline in national public opinion
polls since early March, and a recent spate of harsh media coverage, Giuliani remains the frontrunner for the 2008 Republican nomination. He continues to lead in national polls and in many state polls. He's winning the money race. And he's preparing for the inevitable counterattack.

Nothing is guaranteed in politics, of course. And there's no question Giuliani's decline has been real. Charles Franklin, a political scientist and polling expert at the University of Wisconsin, estimates that the mayor's support has fallen around 8 percentage points nationally since March. The trend in support for Giuliani in Iowa and New Hampshire is also downward. So far, Sen. John McCain's estimated 10 percentage point decline nationally, and the hemorrhaging of cash and staff from his campaign, has overshadowed Giuliani's downward trend. But the trend is there.

A combination of factors may have contributed to Giuliani's decline. His aides say the drop in poll numbers is a fall from an "unnatural high," the inevitable result of a competitive, four-way primary between Giuliani, former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, and McCain. The aides go on to say Giuliani has not yet fully engaged in the campaign, whether through personal retail politics, television and radio advertising, or direct mail. Giuliani has visited Iowa only six times since entering the race. What made this most recent Iowa trip so unusual was that Giuliani held nine events over two days. In the past he has limited public appearances to one or two a day. For now, Giuliani's main concern remains fundraising. Compared with McCain and Romney, Giuliani has spent relatively little money. He has not aired a single television ad. "Romney had $8 million in the bank before we had telephones," says Jim Dyke, one of Giuliani's senior communications advisers.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/930fwqji.asp

[avatar4321]

I can't take the article seriously. They say McCain is in this race. Anyone who is honest knows he isnt.

And besides, unless there is a state by state poll, its impossible to determine a frontrunner. These national polls dont work because they dont take into effect the electorial college. And from what Ive seen Romney is ahead in both Iowa and New Hampshire. Rudy is definitely a strong contender, but if Romney stays in the lead in both of those states, they will get him alot more attention before the other votes.

I think Fred is going to be competative in the southern states atleast. But he also has Huckabee to potentially deal with.

I think Tancredo probably has some good chances in border states. and while he is quiet i wouldnt count out Duncan Hunter yet either.

And who knows what will happen is Newt jumps in.

I dont think there really is a point declaring a "frontrunner" with so many factors in play. lets wait till some actual votes start coming in.

[red states rule]

I can't take the article seriously. They say McCain is in this race. Anyone who is honest knows he isnt.

And besides, unless there is a state by state poll, its impossible to determine a frontrunner. These national polls dont work because they dont take into effect the electorial college. And from what Ive seen Romney is ahead in both Iowa and New Hampshire. Rudy is definitely a strong contender, but if Romney stays in the lead in both of those states, they will get him alot more attention before the other votes.

I think Fred is going to be competative in the southern states atleast. But he also has Huckabee to potentially deal with.

I think Tancredo probably has some good chances in border states. and while he is quiet i wouldnt count out Duncan Hunter yet either.

And who knows what will happen is Newt jumps in.

I dont think there really is a point declaring a "frontrunner" with so many factors in play. lets wait till some actual votes start coming in.

Here the source for the polls

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/


McDone is still in the race - but he is toast

Unless Fred gets in the race - Rudy is the guy will will take the nomination

[glockmail]

I love Rudy. I see him as the best man for the job right now. Libs, and some on the right, are trying to paint him as a liberal - but he is not a liberal.... What's his stand on abortion? :poke:

[red states rule]

What's his stand on abortion? :poke:

He is against partial birth, and says the states should decide on other type of abortions

He has said he persoanlly is opposed to the procedure, but the government should not get involved

[glockmail]

He is against partial birth, and says the states should decide on other type of abortions

He has said he persoanlly is opposed to the procedure, but the government should not get involved

The government already is involved by making murder of the unborn legal. To claim "no controlling legal authority" is a Gore-ism, a cop-out.

[Pale Rider]

Unless Fred gets in the race - Rudy is the guy will will take the nomination

I respect your opinion rsr, but I vehemently disagree. Giuliani will not be the nominee.

However, if he is, I "WILL NOT" vote for him. For the first time in my life, I'll vote outside the republican party, because, as you seem to deny, Giuliani "IS" liberal on too many issues, especially abortion and gun control. Those two issues are BEDROCKS of conservatism, and he's not with the program. Nope. And he will NOT get my vote.

[red states rule]

I respect your opinion rsr, but I vehemently disagree. Giuliani will not be the nominee.

However, if he is, I "WILL NOT" vote for him. For the first time in my life, I'll vote outside the republican party, because, as you seem to deny, Giuliani "IS" liberal on too many issues, especially abortion and gun control. Those two issues are BEDROCKS of conservatism, and he's not with the program. Nope. And he will NOT get my vote.

That is your right Pale Rider

If enough conservatoves like you do the same - you wil wamke up the next morning wilth a Pres Hillary and possibly a Dem Congress

Is that what you want to see happen?

BTW, on abortiona nd guns, Rudy will NOT impose his persaonal views on the rest of the nation - something Hillary willl try to do the minute she is sworn in

[avatar4321]

That is your right Pale Rider

If enough conservatoves like you do the same - you wil wamke up the next morning wilth a Pres Hillary and possibly a Dem Congress

Is that what you want to see happen?

BTW, on abortiona nd guns, Rudy will NOT impose his persaonal views on the rest of the nation - something Hillary willl try to do the minute she is sworn in

dont worry RSR. We wont have to go elsewhere. We will simply not nominate Rudy. I love the mans leadership skills. but i just dont think he should be President. Maybe the secretary of Defense or Homeland security.

[red states rule]

dont worry RSR. We wont have to go elsewhere. We will simply not nominate Rudy. I love the mans leadership skills. but i just dont think he should be President. Maybe the secretary of Defense or Homeland security.

Rudy will get the nomination. I don't see anyone taking it away from him

He is the BEST chance of stopping Hillary

[Dilloduck]

Rudy will get the nomination. I don't see anyone taking it away from him

He is the BEST chance of stopping Hillary

No----letting Hillary talk and talk and talk is the best way to stop Hillary. I'll never again vote for the lesser of two evils and it's time the parties figure it out.

[red states rule]

No----letting Hillary talk and talk and talk is the best way to stop Hillary. I'll never again vote for the lesser of two evils and it's time the parties figure it out.

That is your right

But you may run the risk of Pres Hillary and a Dem run Congress

[avatar4321]

That is your right

But you may run the risk of Pres Hillary and a Dem run Congress

RSR. we arent trying to defeat Hillary. We are trying to elect the best person to the job. Because the best person will be easily able to counter Hillary. We arent going to let fear of Hillary make us vote for someone we dont think is the best man for job. We are here to act for the good of the country, not react to what Hillary does or says.

[red states rule]

RSR. we arent trying to defeat Hillary. We are trying to elect the best person to the job. Because the best person will be easily able to counter Hillary. We arent going to let fear of Hillary make us vote for someone we dont think is the best man for job. We are here to act for the good of the country, not react to what Hillary does or says.

and if you stay home - you might allow Hillary to get in with a Dem Congress

IS that going to be good for Amercia?

[nevadamedic]

I love Rudy. I see him as the best man for the job right now. Libs, and some on the right, are trying to paint him as a liberal - but he is not a liberal


See Rudy Run
Why Giuliani, despite everything, remains the Republican frontrunner.
by Matthew Continetti
08/06/2007, Volume 012, Issue 44

Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, is wandering around a junior high school computer lab, smiling like a child. It's the early evening of July 18, and this is Giuliani's fourth campaign stop of the day. In a half hour or so he will take questions from audience members in the school's gymnasium. But right now he is pointing out and reading aloud the signs above the different computers in the lab, which say things like "Dam Control" . . . "Electrical Grid" . . . "Water Supply". . . .

"You know what this is like?" he says. "This is just like . . . a . . . an emergency response center!"

The glee with which Giuliani says this, the joy he clearly takes at being in a room that reminds him of places where he can be in charge, barking orders and leading others, helps explain his appeal as a presidential candidate. It's an appeal that many in the press and in elite Republican circles seem not to have recognized. The conventional wisdom holds that as grassroots conservatives wake up to Giuliani's differences with them on issues like abortion, they will ditch him in favor of someone else. That may be happening to some extent, but it hasn't knocked Giuliani out of first place or undermined the rationale for his candidacy. Despite his variance on some issues with some conservatives, a decline in national public opinion
polls since early March, and a recent spate of harsh media coverage, Giuliani remains the frontrunner for the 2008 Republican nomination. He continues to lead in national polls and in many state polls. He's winning the money race. And he's preparing for the inevitable counterattack.

Nothing is guaranteed in politics, of course. And there's no question Giuliani's decline has been real. Charles Franklin, a political scientist and polling expert at the University of Wisconsin, estimates that the mayor's support has fallen around 8 percentage points nationally since March. The trend in support for Giuliani in Iowa and New Hampshire is also downward. So far, Sen. John McCain's estimated 10 percentage point decline nationally, and the hemorrhaging of cash and staff from his campaign, has overshadowed Giuliani's downward trend. But the trend is there.

A combination of factors may have contributed to Giuliani's decline. His aides say the drop in poll numbers is a fall from an "unnatural high," the inevitable result of a competitive, four-way primary between Giuliani, former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, and McCain. The aides go on to say Giuliani has not yet fully engaged in the campaign, whether through personal retail politics, television and radio advertising, or direct mail. Giuliani has visited Iowa only six times since entering the race. What made this most recent Iowa trip so unusual was that Giuliani held nine events over two days. In the past he has limited public appearances to one or two a day. For now, Giuliani's main concern remains fundraising. Compared with McCain and Romney, Giuliani has spent relatively little money. He has not aired a single television ad. "Romney had $8 million in the bank before we had telephones," says Jim Dyke, one of Giuliani's senior communications advisers.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/013/930fwqji.asp

:salute::salute::salute::salute::salute::salute:

[red states rule]

Rudy is the front runner. Will Republicans unite behind the nominee or have a hissy fit and let the libs win another election?

[Kathianne]

Rudy is the front runner. Will Republicans unite behind the nominee or have a hissy fit and let the libs win another election?

Right now Rudy is the best candidate we have. IF Hillary gets the Democratic nomination, she'll win. Why? Because the democrats will vote for her. Problem for Rudy, he'll lose more Republican votes than he'll pick up from independents.

[red states rule]

Right now Rudy is the best candidate we have. IF Hillary gets the Democratic nomination, she'll win. Why? Because the democrats will vote for her. Problem for Rudy, he'll lose more Republican votes than he'll pick up from independents.

IF the current polls are true - 50% will nto vote for her under circumstances. hard to win with those high negs

I do not see how she wins the Electoral College - that is what she has to win to win the WH

[nevadamedic]

If Rudy takes it I would like to see him pick Tancredo as his running mate.

[red states rule]

If Rudy takes it I would like to see him pick Tancredo as his running mate.

Fred would be a good choice as well

[red states rule]

If Rudy takes it I would like to see him pick Tancredo as his running mate.

In this election it will be a war of Ideas. A war which the libs come to the battle unarmed.

[gabosaurus]

Rudy is totally unqualified to be president. His only calling card is that he was the (lame duck) mayor of New York when Bush allowed the city to be attacked.

[red states rule]

Rudy is totally unqualified to be president. His only calling card is that he was the (lame duck) mayor of New York when Bush allowed the city to be attacked.

and Hillary's? Besides being Bills wife and running on his "record" - her resume is a blank piece of paper

I posted all the accomplishments Rudy had as Mayor

So far libs have been unable to give hers

[gabosaurus]

Hilary is a candidate in name only. She has money, but not much real support among Democrats. Most movers and shakes know that another Clinton is not a viable candidate. They are merely waiting until her candidacy implodes.

[nevadamedic]

Fred would be a good choice as well

Don't get me started on that POS. Fred Thompson is not fit to hold any office.

[nevadamedic]

Hilary is a candidate in name only. She has money, but not much real support among Democrats. Most movers and shakes know that another Clinton is not a viable candidate. They are merely waiting until her candidacy implodes.

Holy Shit! We actually agree on something for once. You must be taking your medication................

[red states rule]

Holy Shit! We actually agree on something for once. You must be taking your medication................

That is why I am hoping Hillary is the Dems choice. Alot of Dems do not like her and will not vote for her

[Pale Rider]

That is your right Pale Rider

If enough conservatoves like you do the same - you wil wamke up the next morning wilth a Pres Hillary and possibly a Dem Congress

Is that what you want to see happen?
It won't be my fault rsr. You can blame the people that voted for her for that, not me. I'll never, ever vote for a liberal, and that includes liberals trying to run as conservatives.


BTW, on abortiona nd guns, Rudy will NOT impose his persaonal views on the rest of the nation - something Hillary willl try to do the minute she is sworn in
We don't really have to worry about it. Neither Rudy or hitlery is going to be President.

[Pale Rider]

Right now Rudy is the best candidate we have. IF Hillary gets the Democratic nomination, she'll win. Why? Because the democrats will vote for her. Problem for Rudy, he'll lose more Republican votes than he'll pick up from independents.

Yup. There's a boat load of "true" conservatives such as myself that have vowed not to vote for Giuliani, and I think the republican party will wake up and realize that before they put him on the ticket. He's a sure loser.

[nevadamedic]

It won't be my fault rsr. You can blame the people that voted for her for that, not me. I'll never, ever vote for a liberal, and that includes liberals trying to run as conservatives.


We don't really have to worry about it. Neither Rudy or hitlery is going to be President.

So you wont support Fred Thompson or Sam Brownback then?

[theHawk]

Don't get me started on that POS. Fred Thompson is not fit to hold any office.

Stop trying to push Rudy on the rest of us. I'd vote for Fred Thompson, Huckabee, or better yet Hunter over that yahoo liberal Rudy.

[Pale Rider]

So you wont support Fred Thompson or Sam Brownback then?

No. I've already made up my mind who I'm voting for, and they're in my sig line.

If neither are there, I would consider voting for Newt if he was. Otherwise, I'll write my vote for Tancredo in.

[Abbey Marie]

No. I've already made up my mind who I'm voting for, and they're in my sig line.

If neither are there, I would consider voting for Newt if he was. Otherwise, I'll write my vote for Tancredo in.

Pale, have you looked into Duncan Hunter? He's my fave, and I think you might like him, too.

[Pale Rider]

Pale, have you looked into Duncan Hunter? He's my fave, and I think you might like him, too.

I've heard talk, and as time goes on, I'm sure I'll hear a lot more. There's a long time to go with this yet.

I'll vote for any republican that's for closing the border, no amnesty, no anchor babies, abolishing the IRS for a fair tax or flat tax, and then also upholding conservative values, anti abortion, less gun control, against homo marriage, pro English as the official language of America, outlawing flag burning, etc.. Tancredo is all of those. I'm hoping he gets the nomination.

[theHawk]

Found this website that shows which candidate actually fits your stances on the various issues -

http://www.selectsmart.com/president/2008.html


Duncan Hunter came out the highest match for me. A true conservative!?

[Kathianne]

Found this website that shows which candidate actually fits your stances on the various issues -

http://www.selectsmart.com/president/2008.html


Duncan Hunter came out the highest match for me. A true conservative!?

I answered all their questions, then got to screen after screen, with no results.

[theHawk]

I answered all their questions, then got to screen after screen, with no results.


Should be able to click past all the advertisement stuff at the top of the page?

[Pale Rider]

I answered all their questions, then got to screen after screen, with no results.

I tried it too Kath, and it appears the site is a known phishing site, and my spyware program won't let me on it.

[Kathianne]

Should be able to click past all the advertisement stuff at the top of the page?

I didn't see that option and no way am I doing again.

[avatar4321]

my candidate is Mitt... big surprise.

But this doesnt factor into character issues. I think my number one would be the same, but i think some of those afterwards wouldnt.

[nevadamedic]

Stop trying to push Rudy on the rest of us. I'd vote for Fred Thompson, Huckabee, or better yet Hunter over that yahoo liberal Rudy.

Actually I am going for Tancredo above all. RSR is the one pushing Rudy, but I do like Rudy. Fred Thompson is the most Liberal of the bunch lobbying for Pro Abortion groups.

[Trigg]

Pale, have you looked into Duncan Hunter? He's my fave, and I think you might like him, too.

I like Hunters stance on illegals, my other fav is Giuliani.

[glockmail]

Found this website that shows which candidate actually fits your stances on the various issues -

http://www.selectsmart.com/president/2008.html


Duncan Hunter came out the highest match for me. A true conservative!?

1. Theoretical Ideal Candidate (100%)
2. Chuck Hagel (not announced) (75%) Information link
3. Mitt Romney (73%) Information link
4. Sam Brownback (73%) Information link
5. Duncan Hunter (72%) Information link
6. Tom Tancredo (71%) Information link
7. John McCain (68%) Information link
8. Fred Thompson (not announced) (67%) Information link
9. Jim Gilmore (withdrawn) (64%) Information link
10. Newt Gingrich (not announced) (63%) Information link
11. Kent McManigal (campaign suspended) (60%) Information link
12. Ron Paul (57%) Information link
13. Tommy Thompson (54%) Information link
14. Mike Huckabee (53%) Information link
15. Rudolph Giuliani (50%) Information link
16. Al Gore (not announced) (31%) Information link
17. Bill Richardson (30%) Information link
18. Hillary Clinton (28%) Information link
19. John Edwards (28%) Information link
20. Michael Bloomberg (not announced) (28%) Information link
21. Christopher Dodd (27%) Information link
22. Joseph Biden (26%) Information link
23. Alan Augustson (campaign suspended) (25%) Information link
24. Mike Gravel (22%) Information link
25. Wesley Clark (not announced) (22%) Information link
26. Barack Obama (22%) Information link
27. Dennis Kucinich (18%) Information link
28. Elaine Brown (10%) Information link

[Pale Rider]

Found this website that shows which candidate actually fits your stances on the various issues -

http://www.selectsmart.com/president/2008.html


Duncan Hunter came out the highest match for me. A true conservative!?

Got past the phishing, filtered it out, here's my results. Looks like I better read more about Duncan Hunter. But my man Tancredo is still right up there...

http://img297.imageshack.us/img297/6605/resultsnh9.jpg

[Abbey Marie]

Good results, Pale. :salute: Hunter deserves a real shot at this.

[Pale Rider]

Good results, Pale. :salute: Hunter deserves a real shot at this.

I'm starting to believe that Ab. I will read up on him.

[musicman]

I wound up with Hunter and Tancredo in a dead heat at 90%. It falls off pretty drastically after that. Probably doesn't bode well for my status as a seer for '08, I imagine.

[nevadamedic]

Ay yi yi Abbey Hunter? Are you feeling ok latley? :poke:

[red states rule]

If the liberal media is worried - that should tell you something


Paranoid Media Takes on Giuliani
By Russ Smith

Rudy Giuliani's quest for the presidency isn't one I embrace, but the vitriol (perhaps born of fear that he could win in 2008) leveled against him by the elite media and left wing magazines is surely disproportionate.

As a Manhattan resident from 1987-2003, I never cared for Giuliani's constant self-aggrandizement, odd political decisions (his endorsement of Mario Cuomo in '94) and almost comical and fruitless efforts to censor artists he considered lewd and blasphemous. Those detriments, however, paled compared to his grandstanding in the late 1980s, when, as if taking direction from The New York Times, he zealously used his position as a U.S. Attorney to "clean up" the "white collar criminals" in the financial industry. That few of his indictments were successful-aside from ruining the professional lives of many sacrificial lambs-was largely forgotten in his subsequent campaigns for mayor of New York.

Nevertheless, with the dearth of compelling Republican candidacies, Giuliani's platform of aggressive foreign policy and promised allergy to tax hikes is clearly preferable to the lockstep protectionist, punish-the-rich, United-Nations-friendly stances of all the plausible Democratic contenders.

Recently, two national magazines featured cover stories with almost identical teasers: Kevin Baker's piece in the August issue of Harper's titled "A Fate Worse Than Bush: Rudolph Giuliani and the Politics of Personality," and Matt Taibbi's piece in the June 14 Rolling Stone titled "Giuliani: Worse than Bush." It's been my impression that the majority of Democrats couldn't possibly conjure up anyone who's "worse" than Bush.

In fact, Baker never really gets around to saying why Giuliani would be a "fate worse than Bush." Only in the last paragraph does Baker assert that a Giuliani presidency likely wouldn't be "substantially different" than that of the incumbent's. The bulk of Baker's indictment of Giuliani centers on his record as a two-term mayor of New York, refuting the commonly accepted view that Rudy, despite his excesses, succeeded in making the city a safer, more prosperous municipality than his predecessors Ed Koch and especially the forlorn David Dinkins.

According to Baker, Giuliani "achieved almost nothing of significance" during his tenure, save piggybacking on Dinkins' painstaking efforts on crime reduction and governing while the national (and local) economy prospered, in large part because of the technological boom. While it's true that crime did tick down nationally in the 90s, there was no success story as stunning as New York's.

Here's an example: one late Sunday morning in 1989 I was walking to the offices of my company, New York Press, then located at Broadway and Spring St. in tourist-packed Soho. Not even a block away, I witnessed a man shatter the windshield of a parked car with a baseball bat, help himself to the spoils inside, and then casually walk off with the loot. Although the streets were mobbed, no one batted an eye; that's how pervasive brazen criminal activity was in those years.

Pre-Giuliani, I used to walk home at night to Tribeca-about a mile from the office-in the middle of the street, like many residents did. Baker claims that the infamous (and often belligerent) squeegee men who preyed on motorists at busy intersections were gone by the time Giuliani took office after defeating Dinkins in 1993. Maybe we lived and worked in different neighborhoods, but this simply wasn't the case: smalltime thugs, panhandlers and throngs of homeless people seemed to vanish within a year of Giuliani's first term.

Baker, who espouses the oft-repeated notion that 21st century American politics are dominated by personality instead of ideas, begins his article in a very strange way. "Rudolph Giuliani has, by far, the most dubious known personal history of any major presidential candidate in American history, what with his three marriages and his open affairs and his almost total estrangement from his grown children, not to mention the startling frequency with which he finds excuses to dress in women's clothing." Who is Baker kidding when he claims that Giuliani's personal conduct is the "most dubious" in American politics?

What about Grover Cleveland and Andrew Jackson, whose personal lives made for great fodder for journalists and political opponents in the 19th century? The sexual appetite of John F. Kennedy-never mind his father's mob associations and handing out gobs of cash to political operatives-wasn't common knowledge at the time, except to friendly pundits and associates, but it's now part of history. Lyndon Johnson was a horndog and Ronald Reagan never enjoyed a close relationship with his children.

Both Baker and Taibbi take issue with Giuliani's reputation as "America's Mayor," a persona he took on after 9/11. Certainly not all of Giuliani's decisions in the days and months that followed 9/11 were 100 percent sound; that'd be an impossible feat given the hysteria and chaos that was visited upon the city. But the Monday-morning quarterbacking about how Giuliani failed in keeping recovery workers safe at the decimated World Trade Center is an easy line of attack today, especially since the United States, almost inexplicably, hasn't yet suffered another such calamity.

Taibbi, whose pandering, expletive-strewn Hunter S. Thompson imitation is geared to Rolling Stone's demographics, goes much further, at least stylistically, than Baker in recalling 9/11. First, he says that the mayor's career, "like Bush's," was in the toilet prior to the attacks. Maybe, maybe not. Giuliani, who dropped out of a Senate contest against Hillary Clinton the year before due to prostate cancer, was at least temporarily in the political doldrums, not an uncommon problem for public servants who've been in office for eight years. (The conclusion, on the other hand, that Bush was similarly crippled is absurd; he hadn't yet completed a year in office and no one can say how his presidency would have progressed absent 9/11.)

Taibbi continues: "[Giuliani] stood on a few brick piles on the day of the bombing, then spent the next ten months making damn sure everyone worked the night shift on-site while he bonked his mistress and negotiated his gazillion-dollar move to the private sector. Meanwhile, the people who actually cleaned up the rubble got used to checking their stool for blood each morning. Now Giuliani is running for president-as the hero of 9/11. George Bush has balls, too, but even he has to bow to this motherf*****."

How charming.

I've no idea whether Giuliani's moderate views on "morality" issues will sink him in the GOP primaries. Even though his early polling lead has slipped in recent months, it's my hunch that except for diehard, single-issue religious conservatives, Giuliani's tough stance on terrorists will trump issues like abortion and gay marriage. In reading both the Harper's and Rolling Stone exercises in revisionist paranoia, however, it's clear that Bush-despisers are petrified that Giuliani might be the GOP nominee a year from now.

Russ Smith is the founder of three weekly newspapers and contributes frequently to The Wall Street Journal.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/07/the_media_takes_on_giuliani.html