Posted on 02/22/2015 5:39:21 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Those of us who have lived in the NYC area going back to his tenure knew Rudy Giuliani to be a petty, controlling narcissist all along, but when put on the spot to do so he could behave himself, as he did after 9/11 when the television cameras of the world were upon him. But lately he’s been letting his True Rudy flag fly.
His recent comment that he doesn’t know if the President loves America has brought on a lot of commentary about Giuliani’s sad self-destruction, It’s been a long time coming; he pretty much lost his post-9/11 glow among New Yorkers during the 2004 Republican convention. Rudy is erratic; even as mayor, he could be the soul of good sense one minute and a racist, bomb-throwing ferret-hating loon the next. He had a good run as “America’s Mayor,” but Rudy being Rudy, it wasn’t going to last forever.
The best commentary I’ve seen so far on Rudy’s latest episode of yelling at clouds is by Matt Taibbi. It begins:
Rudy Giuliani is giving me Soviet flashbacks.
With his bizarre foot-in-mouth rants about how Barack Obama doesn’t love “America” the way “we” do, Rudy — and other “They hate us!” exceptionalist ‘Muricans like Eric Erickson and Steve Forbes — are starting to remind me of the frightened, denial-sick communist die-hards I knew as a student in Russia.
Taibbi goes on to say that in 1990 he went to Leningrad to study, and so watched the Soviet Union in its death throes. He observes that the Soviets had a strong sense of exceptionalism that clashed with, um, reality.
But the problem with exceptionalism is that it can turn unintentionally comic with the drop of a hat. You’re made to believe you’re at the center of an envious universe, but then the world changes just enough and suddenly you’re a punchline clinging to a lot of incoherent emotions. I watched this happen with my own eyes to a lot of people in the former Soviet Union.
And I feel like it’s happening here now, with Rudy and the rest of the exceptionalist die-hards. They’re hanging on to a conception of us that doesn’t really exist anymore, not realizing that “America” is now a deeply varied, rapidly-changing place, one incidentally that they spend a lot of their public lives declaring they can’t stand.
This was all on display this past week. Rudy’s bizarre, Internet-maelstrom-inspiring media tour began with remarks at a private dinner for Scott Walker. People focused on the insult to Obama, but just as interesting was the apostrophic address to a conspiratorial and exclusive you and me America of his imagination:
I do not believe — and I know this is a horrible thing to say — but I do not believe that the president loves America. . . He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.
Rudy was ripped by pretty much everyone to the left of James Dobson for these comments, with the White House snarkily commenting, “It was a horrible thing to say.”…
…Characteristically, and with a trial lawyer’s bravado, Rudy tried to talk his way out of the mess, rambling in self-defense to Bloomberg, CNN, Fox and anyone else who would listen. At each stop he doubled down on his remarks, concluding the tour with an incoherent rant to the New York Times in which he denied his comments about Obama were racist “since [Obama] was brought up by a white mother.”
God knows what that meant — reading this was like watching Mark Fuhrman undergo hypnosis therapy — but it was fascinating stuff.
This is my favorite part:
Conservative politicians like Rudy are a bizarre combination of constant, withering, redundant whining about Actual Current America, mixed with endless demands that we all stand up and profess our love for some other America, one that apparently doesn’t include a lot of the rest of us or the things about this country we like.
I feel sorry for Rudy that he can’t love this country the way it is. I love America even with @$$holes like him living in it. In fact, I’m immensely proud of our @$$holes; I think America has the best @$$holes in the world. I defy the Belgians or the Japanese to produce something like a Donald Trump. If that makes me an exceptionalist, I plead guilty.
You’ve got to admit he’s got a point about Donald Trump.
I think in part, its because liberal voters can’t help but declare their hate for all things American when the democrat party is trying to adjust their message to appear more appealing to Americans.
Its just not a conversation the democrats want to have right now.
That's a lie. Rudy hasn't tried to walk back anything. Asked by Megan Kelly if he wanted to retract it, he said no, he was there to defend it. Megan said, so you're doubling down, Rudy answered yes.
There’s a lot of flak isn’t there... It’s like Sarah Palin. In one breather they claim Sarah, and now Rudy, is so ridiculous stupid and such a non entity as to be completely ignored but the can’t stop talking about them. Rudy says one bit of commentary and the entire left wing media is talking about it non stop telling us how no one should pay any attention to the “bitter old man yelling at clouds.” Sarah Palin makes one face book post and same thing.
“We shouldn’t pay any attention to Rudy and I’m going to spend the next 680 hours telling you why...”
“They would rather see the country burned to the ground, would rather see a nuclear war break out between Israel and Iran, they would rather see millions of people killed rather than admit they made a massive mistake by electing Obama.”
Which illustrates the absurdity of believing it’s possible to “reach across the aisle” to these cultists.
Yes, it's because they know it's true. They know that because they feel the same way he does.
“He spoke the truth they all know is the truth but are doing everything they can to hide it...”
Of course they are. Obama is the emperor with no clothes.
The truth always hurts the libs
The difference is in the definition of 'love'.
Leftists love America like Scott Peterson loved Laci.
It shows how thin skinned lefties really are. Not that we were all that fond of George W. Bush ourselves but we didn’t go off the deep end when the left pounded him with insults unmercifully for eight years.
Well, it’s horrible because Obama is the President of the United States of America. That much seems obvious.
Rudy hasn’t said anything that those of us who were paying attention knew seven years ago.
I’ve always been fond of “W”. A straight up guy, in my estimation. That’s enough for me. I remember once we were putting up curtains in the spare room, and my wife says to me, “You know he plays electronic golf”. I was like, “Yeah?”
In a nutshell, Rudy is simply the child that saw the emperor in the parade and said he’s not wearing any clothes. Think about it.
The links at this smirking chimp’s blogsite are a parade of leftist drivellers.
The prosecution rests.
The Left will attempt to destroy him, declare him destroyed and irrelevant, and continue to attack because he will occupy their pea-brains for a long time (just like Palin). The TRUTH does that to them.
Giuliani has done us a favor. It’s out in the open. people are talking about it.
It’s going to hurt Obama more than it will hurt Giuliani.
Twilight ? Naah. It’s the Renaissance of Rudy.
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