Just a few short months ago Rudy Giuliani was the front runner for the Republican nomination. In the first primary where he is actively competing it looks like he will come in fourth. We have seen the last few weeks the more he campaigned the lower he went on the polls. So what happened? Jazz keeps reminding everyone that a few months ago I said that Rudy was popular only because most of the country really didn't know him - now they do. The always brilliant
Digby takes a look at the reasons behind the fall of Rudy and I think she gets it right.
What happened? My suspicion is that his absurd braggadocio about everything 9/11 just finally became too much. He was a mayor. He wasn't Patton or Churchill and the only thing he did was wander around on the ground and hold press conferences, which was only meaningful by comparison to the president who ran around the first day like he didn't know what to do.
His "foreign policy" was completely nuts, even in by the standards of the Republican nut grove. He sounds like he's foaming at the mouth when he talks about "Islamofascism" and "staying on offense." There's just something a little bit crazy in his eyes that probably makes even right wingers worry that his aggressiveness might be a bit much.
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Mostly, though, I think it's that he has virtually no appealing positive attributes. He's not funny, he's not compassionate, he's not somebody you'd want to have a beer with and with all of his gloating and bragging, he's just an unpleasant, creepy fellow. I honestly can't figure out why New Yorkers elected him except that he must have been better than the other guy.
It was always going to be hard for twice divorced, pro-choice serial adulterer from New York City to win the nomination. He would have had to have at least been a flamboyant war hero to make all that national security stuff scan. But he was a mayor, not a general, and everything that has come out of his mouthabout 9/11 and "staying on offense" sounds like nothing so much as some sad small man trying to puff himself up to look bigger than he is. New York City doesn't have an army and this guy tries to make it sound like he led the invasion of Normandy. He's ridiculous.
Shaun Mullen's explanation for Rudy's problems in Florida is still my favorite.
His greatest strength is the substantial number of New York transplants in densely populated South Florida who know him well.
His greatest weakness is the substantial number of New York transplants in densely populated South Florida who know him well.
