Actually, in reading this thread, I get the notion that Rudy will be much tougher to defeat than the Duncan Hunter partisans think.
Why?
Because he's a tough guy, and one of the big perceived problems with Bush has been an insufficient toughness level.
Is Duncan Hunter as tough? Can he stand up to the bad guys? Frankly, I don't think there's anyone else in the Presidential candidate field with Rudy's degree of toughness.
In these tough times, a tough guy could go the distance.
And probably should.
D
Duncan Hunter is not a factor. He never will be. He fired his staff in South Carolina already, and he doesn't even register in the polls among fellow Californians.
Maybe if he'd won the MegaMillions jackpot last night, he'd have a remote chance to buy some name publicity. Candidates who haven't even decided to run in the race are doing ten times better than him.
This forum is going to kid itself that there is some perfect candidate who will emerge and contend. I don't even think Hunter is close to perfect, but I don't have to worry about it since he's going nowhere.
I'd say there's about an 80% chance Rudy will win the GOP nomination, and maybe as much as a 75% chance that he's a lock to be the next President.
How this forum comes to grips with that, and how much bloodshed and anger there will be about that, remains to be seen.
I love that Rudy takes his critics on instead of letting them continue to lie with impunity and having that lie fester in the American consciousness for years and years until eventually it becomes a sort of truth. It's one of the reasons I adore the guy; he doesn't back down to anybody.
So, tough guy Giuliani singlehandedly cleaned up New York City, right? You know what would happen if tough guy Rudy took a stroll some night though Harlem or the Bronx, WITHOUT his phalanx of bodyguards armed with evil semi-auto pistols and "assault weapons"? You wouldn't find enough of his scrawny body to scrape off the street the next morning.
A truly "tough" guy doesn't have to have shills constantly yammering about how tough he is. And since you bring up Duncan Hunter, let's do a quick comparison between him and tough guy Rudy. Let's see, battle-hardened Viet Nam vet and National Security expert vs. lisping metrosexual poster boy. Yes, that's a tough one to decide, NOT!!