Sheryl and I watched Rudy Giuliani tonight on Hannity & Colmes and were impressed. The two hosts, both of whom rate way up on the blowhard platitude scale, seemed to keep their mouths relatively shut for once, sensing they were in the presence of man with a certain amount of real, even good-humored, gravitas.
As of now, Giuliani appears to be leading in the polls for the Republican nomination and for the presidency. But every time I post about that, a number of people, usually more traditionally conservative types, jump on here to point out how Rudy will never win the nomination, that his views on abortion, gay rights, etc. are too liberal or that his private life (as opposed to JFK's, FDR's, Eisenhower's, etc. ad nauseum) is too louche for the Republican faithful.
Well, I have to say to those commenters, with all due respect, get over yourselves. If today's events have taught us anything - and I think most of us already knew it - we are, alas, only at the beginning of the Global War Against Islamofascism. More than ever we need a wartime leader capable of uniting as much of the country behind him as possible. For whatever his pluses and minuses, Bush has been weak in that regard. Giuliani seems to have more abilities in that direction, although that is not to say it will be remotely easy for him. But as of this moment, there is no one else but Rudy with the vitae and the charisma to do it.
And as we also all know, all those other issues that people clutch to their bosoms like so many sacred icons - from the economy to stem cell research - pale by comparison to the victorious resolution of this war. In fact, if we don't succeed, they are all completely and forever irrelevant.
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SWB, I will vote for Newt if he gets the nomination, but for now, I support Allen, and would love to see Jack Kemp run again.