Giuliani is the closest thing the '08 Race has to GWBush

Subject: Giuliani is the closest thing the '08 Race has to GWBush

I love this quote: for Giuliani, 'every day is 9/12'

Seriously, how has Giuliani made it this far in the race?

I turn now to Andrew Sullivan of the Times of London, via the blog Anonymous Liberal:

Monday, June 11, 2007
Giuliani's Campaign Theme Song
I enjoyed this passage from Andrew Sullivan's latest Times of London column:

Former New York mayor Giuliani is always entertaining, and he hasn't disappointed. The most remarkable aspect of his candidacy is its complete immunity from anything that has actually happened in the last five years. For Rudy, it's still 9/12 and always will be. And why not? He hasn't felt so significant since – although his speaking fees have. He has no qualms about Iraq. It's simple, after all. We just have to win.

His entire analysis of the war on terror can be reduced to the notion that we stay "on offense". Offense means anything aggressive, it appears. He wouldn't rule out a nuclear strike on Iran, for example. He endorses "any methods necessary" to extract information from anyone who might seem like a terrorist.

He spoke of two recent terror plots – one involving a handful of loons who wanted to invade a military base, another a crew of Caribbeans who dreamt of blowing up JFK airport (they had no weapons and no firm plans) – as if they were an imminent threat to America's very existence.

As his eyes flash through his wire-rim glasses, and he bobs up and down on his shiny corporate shoes, you can just see him drooling over the chance to fire a few missiles, round up a few immigrants, strip a few more Americans of habeas corpus rights and nuke Tehran. This is the man, remember, who banned ferret-ownership and jaywalking in New York City. Next stop: Falluja. Piece of cake.

Sullivan's right, for Rudy "it's still 9/12 and always will be." It reminds of the now classic Onion headline: Giuliani to Run For President of 9/11. And it got me thinking. Hillary Clinton recently held a contest to select the theme song for her campaign. With Giuliani there's no need for a contest. The choice is obvious: "Stuck in a Moment" by U2.

Even worse, Giuliani accepted the job of being on the Baker/Hamilton Iraq commission, but was eventually asked to officially remove himself from the group after never showing up for a single meeting. Here is a golden opportunity for the guy to build some kind of foriegn policy portfolio, and he can't even be bothered to show up at the meetings.

Rudy was a decent mayor. I appreciate that he cut down on crime. But he strikes me as a slightly more intelligent, if equally egotistical, righteous and conniving, George W Bush.

His campaign seems all image and no substance. And that's saying something, considering the general state of election politics in America. The curtain is going to get pulled back on this fool.