Wednesday, February 07, 2007

It is about time they start whacking Mayor 9/11.

Arch-crank Jonathan Alter explores Rudy’s Dark Side:

Giuliani excelled as a crisis manager. But what about the rest of the time? Why the former New York City mayor’s temperament makes him a risky pick for president.

Giuliani excelled as a crisis manager. But what about the rest of the time? Why the former New York City mayor’s temperament makes him a risky pick for president.

So why am I so worried about him as president? Why do I think it’s Giuliani, not John McCain, who may have a problem with the Big T—temperament?

The story of the bad Rudy has, in retrospect, been oversimplified. There’s reference to his poor relations with the black community and his mishandling of the 1999 Amadou Diallo case, in which police fired 41 shots at an unarmed African immigrant. The truth is, Al Sharpton was hardly alone in his contempt for Giuliani.
Most New Yorkers were horrified, not by his defense of the police, but by the arrogant and astonishingly tone-deaf way in which he handled himself. His ridiculously thin skin and mile-wide mean streak were not allegations made by whiners and political opponents. They were traits widely known to his supporters. Which is why, if you ask Giuliani backers in New York City who was the better mayor—Giuliani or Mike Bloomberg—I’d wager that a strong majority would say Bloomberg.

Due to time constraints, we now move to further action.

Based on the polls, Rudy Giuliani is now the front runner for the GOP nomination. He could very well be president. Instead of obsessing endlessly over whether social conservatives will scrutinize his record closely enough to see that he is not one of them, we should be debating what kind of president Giuliani—or any of the rest of them—would actually make. Let’s begin by talking about temperament.

Instant translation: Too bad this guy is a nut. We could use an R who supports babykilling.

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