Posted on 04/22/2007 2:46:31 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
He's glib, slippery as a snake, and clearly in his element today at Texas A&M University, where hundreds of faculty, students, and dignitaries filled the auditorium to hear Rudolph Giuliani pitch his presidential gameplans.
Giuliani's a smarmy man whose own children reportedly don't support his candidacy. But today, he was greeted with full Aggie honors--applause, standing ovations, "howdies" and great whooping cheers. "I like that! I love that sound!" Giuliani pronounces happily, encouraging more whooping. After a glowing introduction by former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, whom Giuliani somewhat redundantly called "a great American president who was part of the great American presidency," Giuliani proclaims: "Détentists and doom predictors" who were "defeated" by the former Soviet Union's collapse "will be defeated again, when the United States wins an overwhelming victory over terrorism."
"Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!" Giuliani relishes the moment.
He then launches his salvo: "Our values," Giuliani tells A&M's strongly Christian audience, "come from God."
"Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!" shout the crowd.
The "radical Islamic terrorists" have "values," Giuliani grudgingly admits, but "theirs don't come from God."
The crowd is spellbound.
"People around the world are planning to come here and kill us!"
"Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!" the crowd exults. Democrats, says Giuliani, "make the mistake of romantically seeing our enemies" as mere "criminals." Those who oppose escalating the Iraq war "don't really understand what is at stake."
"Hiiisss!" slithers across the room—the sound Aggies make when they don't like something, like when Giuliani used the word "Democrats."
"We," Giuliani says of Republicans, "are a party of great principle"
and "our ideas are going to prevail. The question is," he pauses, "will we do it in a sensible amount of time?"
The implicit answer is clearly, not if the Democrats in Congress have their way or win the presidential election.
"Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!" scream the Aggies. "America can do it!"
Giuliani exults, referring to winning the Iraq war. He likens the students in their patriotic military uniforms to "the World Trade Center's first responders." The Aggies applaud themselves.
Then, we line up for questions. Amidst all the whooping and stand-up ovations though, the student next to me knocks my camera. It's a tiny thing, a Sony 8.1 megapixel Cybershot that takes a wicked little snap.
Barbara Bush earlier allowed me three little snaps of her looking pretty snappy herself in a crisp navy blue suit.
I want a nice snap of Giuliani, but my camera's lens is jammed from the drop. "Turn camera off and turn back on," instructs the Sony computer. So I do that, and the camera makes a little tinkling sound—"dink-adink-adink"--for less than a second. I wait, and turn the camera back on. It emits another little one-second tinkling sound. But the lens won't move.
Giuliani's followers are alert for the slightest interference in their candidate's message. As my camera sings "dink-adink-adink," a large woman grabs my arm. Hard. It's not a friendly grab. And she hisses louder than any Aggie. It's a sickening feeling to be grabbed so hard by a hissing, angry person. My heart stops, but I say, in my coldest voice, something I hope every American will say when someone pushes them around simply because their snapshot camera is singing "dink adink adink" for less than a second while a "Great Republican Party" candidate is taking questions.
"Take your hands off my arm," I direct her. She glares.
"Take your hands off me," I repeat.
But she doesn't give up easily. "You'll have to leave the building!" she demands.
I shake my head "no" and shake free of her grip, but I am nervous.
She's someone of importance. She heads straight to a suited man with a curlicue earpiece. To his credit, he looks at me holding my little tinkling snapshot camera, and slowly shakes his head at her.
He refuses to arrest me, or toss me from the building, or otherwise remove me from the presence of Giuliani and those who support his candidacy.
But am I frightened? Sure I am. And I am home, in America, in Texas, in College Station surrounded by rolling fields of sorghum and soy and grass growing from green to as blue as the robin's egg sky it reaches up to. I am not in Baghdad. Or am I?
"Wow!" gasps a friend. "She used to work for Bob Gates!"
They stop questions just as my turn arrives. I'd intended to ask Giuliani, "Given that you say America must fight an 'offensive' rather than 'defensive' war on terror, if you become president, will you extend the Iraq war to Syria and Iran?"
It's a question that might not win any friends. But I am not "the enemy."
So take your hands off me. And give us your answer.
Written by Sarah Whalen, who is a contributing writer and who teaches Journalism
She certainly is full of herself.
an aspiring Helen Thomas.
"come from God", he said.,
I wonder if he gave it Rush's
"talent on loan from G O D" emphasis?
There you go again.....making one start their day with that mug shot. Shame on you!
I saw Helen Thomas in person, twice. Once leaving the White House and once speaking at Kennesaw College. Trust me...she’s as butt ugly in person as she is on TV.
I certainly hope so.
I do apologize but I was “goaded” into it.
I’ve googled Ms Whalen but can’t find where she teaches Journalism. Have to wonder about those things.
In light of her writing, I wondered about her credentials. Her politics are obvious.
I think what you don’t understand is that it’s really about her.
There are a lot of things that could be gleaned from a major presidential contender’s visit to a major university, but the most important thing is how one particularly poor writer feels.
I don’t know where this person “teaches journalism,” and it’s probably better that way.
I’m not a huge Giuliani fan, but I am an Aggie, and a semi-literate voter (not to mention frequent reader of the Bayou Buzz, which usually has slightly higher standards), and this article is just ridiculously annoying on a number of fronts.
Sincerely, YCTHouston, who is a contributing drinker and who teaches journalism (to anyone who will shut up and listen long enough).
Anyway, Rudy might and might not be a lot of things, but he's got a backbone, and snakes don't.
Hi from an Aggie mom.
Shhhhh.... we're not supposed to talk about him.
...didn't get the memo.
Was chatting with some people the other day. They're saying things like, "we have to get a pro-life cadidate in."
My heart is very much in pro-life work, and I don't see a pro-life candidate worth any attention anywhere. Alot can happen in a year and a half, but I just don't see it happening. The left would love for people to stay home on election day because there's no "pro life candidate."
If you elect someone with a conscience, you'll have useful representation. I think Mr. Giuliani has a conscience (the other side of "backbone").
Conscience means accountability, which is required of a representative. Conscience is also is essential to good judgment, another indispensible quality for a representative to have. And a commander-in-chief, as well.
Solid thinking.
Thanks. If I wasn't wearing a bullseye before, I am now. ;)
There should be no bullseyes. Debate yes. Bulleyes in our party no. Reagan would be the first to say so. In fact I believe he did.
Another liberal feminist journalism professor heard from...but it’s a shame that they’ve even infested Aggieland.
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