Giuliani's feet of clay
Rudy Giuliani's record prior to September 11 shows him in an unflattering light - and now his costly mistakes are catching up with him.
Cliff Schecter
The Guardian blog
Rudy Giuliani grows more absurd by the day. One of his most recent ridiculous pronouncements to an Iowa audience was an oldie-but-goody from the right-wing playbook on xenophobic demagoguery: "If we are not careful and you don't elect me, this country will be to the left of France."
No, not France! You mean that place with the nude beaches and the cheese and the free healthcare system that covers everyone? Run for the hills!
Yes, this kind of thing is what passes for discourse in a country where the race for the presidency has in recent decades morphed into a never-ending episode of Bay Watch.
But I'll share with you a something even goofier - an industry term - than Rudy's Franco-paranoia: many Americans still think Rudy Giuliani is a 9/11 hero.
It's still an uphill battle to question Giuliani's Churchillian poses of that day; the majestic manner in which he carried himself while George Bush was preoccupied with reading mono-syllabic phrases to school children and using Air Force One as the largest hide-and-seek hiding spot in the world.
But even though Rudy hasn't yet donned his Top Gun flight suit, that doesn't change the fact that the serial-marrying former mayor of New York was in fact quite the opposite of a "hero" in the years before 9/11. In fact, his actions, or inaction, are responsible for getting firefighters killed.
(Continued here.)
Cliff Schecter
The Guardian blog
Rudy Giuliani grows more absurd by the day. One of his most recent ridiculous pronouncements to an Iowa audience was an oldie-but-goody from the right-wing playbook on xenophobic demagoguery: "If we are not careful and you don't elect me, this country will be to the left of France."
No, not France! You mean that place with the nude beaches and the cheese and the free healthcare system that covers everyone? Run for the hills!
Yes, this kind of thing is what passes for discourse in a country where the race for the presidency has in recent decades morphed into a never-ending episode of Bay Watch.
But I'll share with you a something even goofier - an industry term - than Rudy's Franco-paranoia: many Americans still think Rudy Giuliani is a 9/11 hero.
It's still an uphill battle to question Giuliani's Churchillian poses of that day; the majestic manner in which he carried himself while George Bush was preoccupied with reading mono-syllabic phrases to school children and using Air Force One as the largest hide-and-seek hiding spot in the world.
But even though Rudy hasn't yet donned his Top Gun flight suit, that doesn't change the fact that the serial-marrying former mayor of New York was in fact quite the opposite of a "hero" in the years before 9/11. In fact, his actions, or inaction, are responsible for getting firefighters killed.
(Continued here.)
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