Sorry if talking 9/11 was a winner, Bush would have 90% approval. The surge course correction has to work. Iraq has to stand up so we can start to stand down.
Bush isn't that great of a communicator, and has trouble stringing sentences together during press conferences. That does not inspire confidence-- some even console themselves by thinking Bush is a puppet for sinister forces behind the scenes, rather than face the possibility that he's really not that intelligent.
Giuliani makes the case that we can't make the bad guys go away by having a vote on it. The Revolutionary Islamists are at war with us, whether we fight for freedom or not. They don't hate us because we sometimes fail to live up to our ideals -- they hate us *because* of our ideals. One Giuliani saying this stuff is worth more than a 100 Hagels who aren't.