the art of the [political] sell
everyone keeps saying that rudy giuliani is the inevitable winner of the 2008 rnc nomination. why? because "he can beat hillary?" i disagree. he's not inspiring in real life, but he sure does great in the soundbites! let's examine the real mr. giuliani a bit, shall we?
some are pointing to the fact that he's been married more than twice as an issue. that's just fluff - actually, i think the msm is saying that the marriage thing is an issue for conservatives because they assume it is and they found a couple of people to agree so we all must think so too.
no, i'm more concerned about the things he did as mayor giuliani than as mr. giuliani. i'm also concerned with what he is saying now to try to change who he has been - and i believe that we all need to be so.
in a recent column, pat buchanan posits that rudy is "...represents a return to liberal Republicanism that would strip the GOP of its hard-won progress on moral, social and cultural issues..." he further says:
A Giuliani presidency would represent the return and final triumph of the Republicanism that conservatives went into politics to purge from power. A Giuliani presidency would represent repudiation by the party of the moral, social and cultural content that, with anti-communism, once separated it from liberal Democrats and defined it as an institution.
i believe this to be dead on accurate. this video says so much about him while rudy's have a grand ol' time:
so after a public lifetime of being pro-abortion, anti-gun rights, pro-affirmative action, etc. and being in march after march in the gay rights parade in new york, we are now to believe that he's a conservative? sorry, i'm not buying it.
in april of 2006 joseph farah wrote in his column 'between the lines' for world net daily this about mr. giuliani:
"...the smart money has long suggested that Giuliani is incapable of winning the Republican nomination for the presidency because of his hideous positions on homosexuality and abortion. But it appears Giuliani is aware of this weakness and is attempting to hoodwink American evangelicals the way Bill Clinton did.
As Andrew Sullivan put it, "If Rudy is talking Jesus, he's going to run."
And, boy, is he ever talking the talk.
Rudy Giuliani in dragNow, before I tell you what he said, and to whom he said it, let me first introduce to you the real Rudy Giuliani.
Is America really ready for a drag-queen president?
Can America survive another obnoxious phony baloney masquerading as one thing and governing as another?
Will Republicans be fooled again and nominate a candidate who favors unrestricted abortion on demand?
Should we expect the Grand Old Party to become the Gay Old Party in 2008 and put its stamp of approval on a guy 100 percent committed to the homosexual activist agenda?
and look where we are with rudy.
for instance, with rudy giuliani we get the same view on abortion that president clinton had (and will have): personally against it, but believes a woman has a right to choose. and then he says he supports constitutional constructionists for judges. forgive my blondness, but aren't these two viewpoints just a tad contradictory?
it would be different if he said "i personally am opposed to abortion, and i believe that with a court comprised of constitutional constructionists roe v. wade would be overturned and the rule on abortion would be handed back to the states (where it belongs) and then i would fight at the state level to protect a woman's right to choose." but that's not what he has said. at least i have been unable to find any thing to indicate that this is what he believes.
the people over at the jewish task force break it down even further, calling rudy the 2008 election disaster. much of the article is no longer timely (john mc cain and condoleeza are both mentioned as possible winners) but the information on rudy is still valid, if a trifle harsh... in the article (that was originally published in 2005) they say:
Giuliani is completely pro-abortion, and even supports the barbaric practice known as partial birth abortion.
But that is just the beginning of his extreme left-wing positions: Giuliani is pro-Sodomite, pro-Third World immigration and anti-Second Amendment.
Every year as New York's mayor, Giuliani marched in the Sodomite parade down Fifth Avenue with all of the transvestites, the sadomasochistic freaks wearing Nazi helmets, and the child molesters of the National Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA).
Giuliani himself dressed in "drag" - he wore a dress, a wig, makeup and lipstick - on more than one occasion.
Giuliani's sexual escapades are as bad as those of Bill Clinton.
Giuliani married his first cousin and then pulled all types of strings to get the marriage annulled by the Catholic Church. (Catholics are not allowed to divorce, and so "annulment" of a marriage is sometimes used to end an unwanted union.)
Giuliani then married his second wife, Donna Hanover, who starred in the evil pornographic and child-molesting play, The Vagina Monologues. In the play, a grown woman has a lesbian, child-molesting relationship with a 13-year-old girl.
An uncaring mother and a cheating husband made for tabloid fodder during the messy Giuliani-Hanover divorce - Television personality Donna Hanover starred in The Vagina Monologues, a play about lesbian pedophilia, and played Jimmy Carter's sister, Ruth
Carter Stapleton, in The People vs. Larry Flynt, a loving cinematic tribute to the infamous porn king, depicted in the film as a “free speech” crusader
Giuliani then openly cheated on his second wife, parading around the city with his adulterous mate, Judith Nathan. Giuliani even wanted to bring his adulterous mate into the Mayor's official residence in Gracie Mansion to openly live with him. He did not care that his young son Andrew was living there and would have seen his father together with his adulterous partner every day.
Finally, Giuliani sought to divorce his second wife. This time, he did not seek an "annulment," he openly sought a divorce.
When the Giuliani's separated, he moved into the apartment of an AIDS-infected homosexual "couple" whom he had befriended.
How can Republicans who so bitterly condemned the terrible moral example set by Bill Clinton now support for President the equally slimy Rudy Giuliani?
back in june william burnett references a piece in the village voice denouncing rudy's catholicness. in so far as i could care less what religion potus is (provided it's not islam or the like) this does have some implications. if he's not really catholic, based on his actions and his life, then how can we expect him to behave in a conservative manner at any level? any way, in the burnett piece he says:
On abortion, the article goes point-by-point in Giuliani's public career to demonstrate a man embracing the so-called right to abortion much more than politically necessary to get elected into office. In fact, as a matter of policy, Giuliani continued Mayor Ed Koch's practice of having the city fund abortions at city hospitals for women who could not afford it -- no questions asked. According to the article...
One of [Giuliani's] prime claims to the presidency, emphasized on the stump, is his slashing of the city's welfare rolls. But even as he found brutal new ways to cut the poor off the dole, he was using millions in city funds to subsidize abortions for women whose incomes were too high to meet [Federal subsidy] eligibility standards.
this does not sound like a man who is "personally against abortion" to me. does it to you?
possibly more informative is this information from john hawkins over at human events. he lays it out so well, i can't think any more should be necessary as a reason to vote against this guy in the primaries. mr. hawkins posits that rudy is not really against gay marriages, is anti-second amendment, pro-abortion, and he is pro-illegal immigration. in fact mr. hawkins says:
If you agree with the way that Nancy Pelosi and Company deal with illegal immigration,
then you'll find the way that Rudy Giuliani tackles the issue to be right down your alley.
there is more, but it goes on and on and on. none of it good. call him charismatic. call him personable. call him a great salesman. just don't call him a conservative, because he isn't.
personally, i think that rudy was very positive and public in the aftermath of 9/11. however, i also recognize that 9/11 saved rudy politically. does this make him a good fit to be potus? i don't think so. but make no mistake: IF rudy gets the nomination (because a lot of people are too idiotic to vote for an actual conservative) i will support his bid for the presidency. i just don't want it to come down to that....
