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Giuliani on Meet the Press
Having missed it on Sunday morning, I saw quite a bit of Tim Russert’s grilling of Rudy Giuliani on the Web. What most struck me was Giuliani’s speech patterns and mannerisms. He still talks in the edgy, uncomfortable, and charmless way he had when he was mayor. He looks and sounds like the combative mayor of New York City—not like a national politician, let alone like a president. Furthermore, his substantial treatment of national issues, such as defense matters, was superficial and off-hand. On Iran, he kept repeating, “We have to keep the military option open. Any president would have to do that.” He doesn’t have an evolved view of things based on experience, study, and thought. He has second-hand slogans and superficial responses. He treated the earth-shaking National Intelligence Estimate, which had had the entire political world buzzing for the previous week, as though it was of no particular significance. He wings it, and thinks that’s sufficient. “Keep the military option open. Any president would do that.” When he ran for mayor in 1993, he didn’t talk about “what any mayor would do,” he had a grasp of what he wanted to do. I was half day-dreaming early in the morning, and the following came to me. I report it not because I like it, or because the polls support it or don’t support it, but because it’s what I saw as possible. In my mind’s eye, I could see Hillary being sworn in. In my mind’s eye, I could see Obama being sworn in. In my mind’s eye, I could see Romney being sworn in. I could not see Giuliani being sworn in.
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