Check out an article, too, in The New Yorker on why Giuliani, including his pre-9/11 style, may play in "the heartland." Peter J. Boyer argues that his perceived toughess and image of the proper bad guys can outweigh his position on "social issues" with the GOP base. "To conservatives, pre-Guiliani New York was a study in failed liberalism, a city that had surrendered to moral and physical decay, crime, racial hucksterism, and ruinous economic pathologies." 

It's not entirely convincing. First, it spends a lot of time presenting Giuliani as a rather poor campaigner, too bumbling and self-contradictory to play the tough guy sufficiently well. Second, it would certainly seem that he misses no chance to run on 9/11. Clearly he's thus vulnerable on both counts once it gets closer to an election. Intriguing nonetheless as a suggestion of how the conservative stances on such things as foreign and domestic policy hang together, by sharing a kind of imbecilic brutishness.  

John 

http://www.haberarts.com/

I think Todd's point (Todd correct me if I am wrong) has to do with the pass Rudy is getting from the MSM. Rudy will say anything to revise history to suit his campaign and the MSM just goes along with it. A simple fact check would send up the red flags. The VV article proves this point, and I am sure I donlt have to mention the limited nature of the VV's budget for investigative reporting when compared to CNN, the networks, The Times, and the WashPo.

/c

In the blogosphere every one is an expert, so no one is an expert.

I've often been suspicious of professional sports teams who seem to do better over the long haul by never winning the big one. They save their team and long term investment.

Rudy is of that ilk...he may have already calculated that he does more for his political and media career by losing: Less stress, good money, tolerable power.

We will find ourselves suffering under President JulieAnnie if things continue as they are going now. We Democrats do not appear to be heading towards nominating a strong enough candidate to defeat JulieAnnie, especially with the vast bulk of the MSM supporting JulieAnnie with all of their resources. But, we are all so over confident now that I don't see us making any corrections. I think Karl Rove may be winning after all.

Hoppy in Sacramento

What race are the "street thugs" against whom the good mayor is reputed to be so tough?

I don't think Rudy's popularity is any mystery at all.

He also provides excellent advice on what sort of memes we need to use to stop him

Is this a meme? My dictionary is older than I am. :-)

T. G. says Rudy's ersatz biography "depicts him as a hybrid of Jack Bauer and Teddy Roosevelt".  The video looks more like a hybrid of Richard Simmons and Dame Edna.

aMike

While I don't want to jinx us all into an even longer reign of stupidity and despair but is there really any Republican candidate that stands much of a chance in the upcoming election?

Perhaps I'm just being naive and a bit overly optimistic but I just can't imagine it happening. If this nation were to elect another president even remotely similar to the rabid idiots that this administration (and that party it seems) is teeming with then I think I'll have to give up on America completely. (Just to cover my bases, can anyone suggest a country to which I might apply for citizenship? I'm a pretty decent citizen if I do say so myself!) Things are BAD here. Real bad. And we need to stop voting ideologically and start voting smart. I'm not about to hold any of the Democratic candidates up as pillars of virtue or a miracle cure for what ails us but seriously...another Republican president? I just can't imagine it happening. I don't WANT to imagine it happening. Rudy (and Mitt too come to think of it) perfectly represent characteristics that we should strive to avoid in ourselves. So why in the world do people even consider electing these cankerous people to office?

Have patience. Rudy will get his. I have not lost faith in the megalomedia's penchant for creating a Cult of Personality so they can profit by bringing him or her down. They've done it to McCain. They are doing it to Fred. And they will do it to Newt, before FIX NEWS anoints Mitt.

Someone with more compuder acumen than me please try this Dame Richard Edna Simmons = Gudy Ruliani blend at http://www.morphthing.com/ and report back.......And while I'm thinking about it,try to blend Fred Thompson with the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Here's my first try--<a href="http://www.morphthing.com/image/796367-richard2-and-ee?key=6151ad168729b7f0c905e2399efa7023"><img src="http://www.morphthing.com/showimage/2/6151ad168729b7f0c905e2399efa7023/0/796367/richard2-and-ee.jpeg"></a>

I think the link thingy actually works, but I won't guarantee it.  :-)

aMike

Remember the move to keep Kerry from receiving the Sacraments, especially Communion, because he was divorced and pro choice?

Time to get some living room protection.  In this instance I recommend Hurts Rent-a-Raptor, which specialized in sharp clawed, perch-less avians.  If Rudy's nose reappears they'll make a bee-line for it and sink talons in appropriately.  There are two models...the more expensive one is housebroken and won't crap on your oriental rug.  :-)  They're developing a deluxe model which will retract with Rudy's nose and crap on his rug.

aMike

The link didn't work but bravo for trying. Can you give a description of the match? I think there might be better ones. Maybe Dame Edna and Don Knotts.

Chris Matthews, who frequently worked himself into an almost tearful state of emotion over what the awful, awful Bill Clinton did in "the PEOPLE'S HOUSE" has declared what Rudi! did in Gracie Mansion off limits. "We're not gonna go there!" he did manfully declare to someone who made a light-hearted reference to Rudi!'s marital history.

As always, Tweety is (appropriately enough) the canary in the coalmine of the DC Establishment Media, a loud, spittle-flecked, embarrassingly un-self-aware Freudian caricature of what they all think and how they will act.

The question is, will the Church go after a divorced, pro choice, pro gay rights Republican Catholic they way they go after similarly inclined Democratic Catholics?

You could also throw cross-dressing into the mix. While the outcome would be to my liking, I can't quite get past the hypocrisy of being in the cheering section for killing his candidacy based in part upon his pro-choice and pro-gay rights stances. These are among the very few of the man's desirable traits.