October 28, 2004
AMERICA'S MAYOR:
Former NYC mayor stumps for Bush in Maine (DAVID SHARP, 10/28/04, MaineToday.com)
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani praised President Bush´s leadership in the war against terrorism Thursday as Republicans continued to press on against Democrat John Kerry in Maine´s 2nd Congressional District.Giuliani compared Bush´s situation with that of Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. It was an unpopular war but Lincoln, like Bush, had the vision to see what would lie ahead if the war were not waged, he said.
"The major overriding issue," Giuliani said, "the most important thing now with our country is leadership. We need a leader who can take us through difficult times."
Giuliani´s visit shows that the GOP is not willing to cede Maine despite a recent poll that showed Kerry ahead by 11 points. The poll also found the race much closer in the 2nd District.
He's got to be headed to NJ & PA for the weekend. Posted by Orrin Judd at October 28, 2004 4:18 PM
Could Rudy be in the running for Secretary of State?
It seems odd, but he went overseas a number of times post-9/11, is well-known and certainly not hated overseas, is used to juggling all sorts of lefty constituancies, and his cultural liberalism likely won't hurt him there.
I'd like to see him do that.
Posted by: Andrew X at October 28, 2004 5:29 PMU.N. ambassador would be more fun, especially if he still had enough inside clout to have all their cars towed...
Posted by: John at October 28, 2004 8:14 PMHe's replacing Ashcroft or Ridge.
While I would love Rude Rudy as Secretary of State, we'd have exponentially more animosity around the world than we do now. Now, that may not be a bad thing but Bush won't risk it.
Posted by: Bart at October 29, 2004 6:41 AMBart (if you're there...)
Why would Rudi be som much more antagonistic than Colin Powell. He donpolice liason work in Moscoa, Mexico City, and elsewhere. What am I missing in that I don't see any latent hotility out there against him... not more than virtually anyone else Bush might pick?
Posted by: Andrew X at October 29, 2004 8:28 AMJeebus. Spell-check much, there, Drew?
Posted by: Andrew X at October 29, 2004 8:29 AMAndrew,
Rudy is a brilliant administrator, a tough-minded guy and right (at least in my perspective) on virtually all the issues. But Rudy has very sharp elbows, and has all the subtlety of a bulldozer. He made a lot of enemies among the girlyman class in NYC, so one can imagine how UN and Euroscum types will react to him. He says what he means and he means what he says. He is a Brooklyn guy down to his toenails.
My favorite example of this was when someone invited Arafat to a reception and recital at Carnegie Hall being given by Giuliani. Rudy said that he won't have any terrorist thugs at the recital as long as he was mayor and had Arafat booted out. The State Department got all huffy and demanded he apologize. His response outside of an outright refusal to apologize was unprintable in a family newspaper or website.
Another more famous example came when he turned down money from a Saudi sheik who blamed 9/11 on Israel.
Posted by: Bart at October 29, 2004 6:48 PMYeah, but where's the BAD stuff? ;-)
Posted by: Andrew X at October 29, 2004 8:54 PM