Posted on 01/26/2008 5:31:02 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
In four days, on the night of January 29th , Rudy Giuliani will know the fate of his political career. The Republican Presidential candidate and former Mayor of New York City is pushing all of his chips into the middle on the state of Florida. Anything but a first place finish will for all intents and purposes end the former frontrunner’s chance at the Republican nomination. Just two short months ago Giuliani led Florida by a full 20 percentage points over Mitt Romney, but as of today Giuliani trails McCain and Romney by an average of about 5%. This represents a 25 percent nosedive in the polls.
So what the hell happened? This is the man that cleaned up the capital of the western world and bravely helped his city recover after the devastating attacks of September 11th. Well, what happened was the voters began to pay attention. While Rudy was enjoying the perks that come with being the GOP front-runner, the rest of the candidates were busy carving out their niche in the election by championing an issue to give their campaign a distinguished voice. Mitt Romney is the accomplished venture capitalist with business savvy and mannequin good looks. McCain presented himself as the war hero who will not let the troops come home, this makes him “tough on terror.” Mike Huckabee branded himself the “Christian Leader” and has tried to keep a cross hovering over his shoulder as often as possible. Fred Thompson was the champion of gun rights who honed his political wit on the set of Law and Order and Law and Order: SVU. Ron Paul has gone against the grain by telling the American people the truth and he is the Champion of the Constitution.
Rudy’s issue became not cleaning up crime in New York City, but simply holding the title of mayor at the time of the September 11th attacks. The majority of the American people have yet to make the connection of how that would make him a great President and I don’t see it either. Even Tancredo made a name for himself with immigration.
Then just as the American people began to realize that Rudy didn’t have an issue the scandals began to roll in one after another, and they would not go away. Bernard Kerik, Giuliani’s former driver who worked his way up to New York City’s police chief under the close tutelage of Mayor Rudy, was indicted on Federal corruption charges. This scandal single handedly exposed Giuliani’s lack of judgment when making important decisions because Giuliani not only promoted Kerik to Police Chief but he also recommended him for Director of Homeland Security. The American people began to worry that if Rudy’s right hand man was facing a laundry list of federal indictments, then what would his eventual Presidential cabinet would be a nightmare.
The Kerik scandal was just one of many scandals to plague Rudy’s campaign. Others included having New York City’s finest walk his mistress’s dog, allowing his law firm to do business with sworn enemies of the United States…the list goes on and on.
And this is not to mention that the man suffers from uncontrollable giggling fits. He has been heard giggling during important moments of GOP Presidential debates. He also giggled his way through most of an extremely important Meet the Press interview. The general feeling towards Rudy after such pathetic performances was pity and embarrassment because nobody enjoys watching a man publicly self destruct.
But don’t feel too bad for the guy he will always have the lecture circuit and quite honestly, I think we will be more comfortable there. He will also get a chance to catch up on his reading.
Funny, I don’t see it as a collapse. I see it as the MSM throwing all the liberals at Republicans before any vote was ever taken.
I don’t see Rudy’s folly as much as I see a MSM totally unaware of what is going on with their customers.
Well, one word not mentioned here is what did him in. Abortion. His numbers started going down just as soon as he confirmed that he was still virulently pro-abortion.
It’s not his only problem, by any means. But it’s the deal breaker.
And to think of all the clownish ex-Freepers who told us to get on the train, because a Rudy candidacy was inevitable.
You are oh so right! The MSM knows they have a rather limited window in which to affect the election and right now that window is open in Florida.
There object is to make you feel like your old fashioned, or out of date, if you think we should wait for an election to actually be held before they declare winners.
It might well be that Rudy will fall, perhaps even badly, in Florida this week, but I prefer to judge the outcome based on the election, not the MSM’s hype.
Here's a good video on Rudy too:
You are correct.
His family situation was too ugly.
When your kids won’t show up on the stump, you’re pretty much done.
It wasn’t Rudy’s gaffes that did him in. All the other candidates have embarassed themselves at one time or another. Rudy’s problem was that for the first few primaries, he made himself invisible, and therefore irrelevant. The only time you saw him was at debate.
While he was vacationing in FL or wherever, his opponents were building their followings. Rudy took his following for granted. He hoped that the early primaries would be meaningless. He misjudged and it’s costing him.
This campaign has demonstrated that Rudy has a yellow streak behind all that talk.
>>McCain presented himself as the war hero who will not let the troops come home, this makes him “tough on terror<<
McCain has plenty of flaws but its reprehensible to paint him as refusing to let the troops come home.
With Fred out, I think Rudy’s the best choice. I don’t trust Romney. But, I still think McCain will be our Nominee. Better McCain than Romney, in my book.
Maybe he could be First Lady.
Rudy is like a one hit wonder rock-band.
Yeah Giuliani can take his rightful place alongside the freakin’ Cowboys.
That and the fact that he’s a liberal ass.
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