I don’t “endorse” anyone – because, like, who cares what Mitch Berg thinks? 

And as I showed the other day, I’m still figuring out my short list of GOP candidates; JMac shows signs of joining Rudy, Mitt and Fred on my personal rotation.

First Ringer states a great case for Giuliani, though.

Or…is it?:

He’s down in the polls.  His cash is low.  TIME remarked that his “hang-on insistence is all the more puzzling because of his lackadaisical campaigning style.”  That he was “out of gas.”  Rudy?  No.  Reagan, before his stunning primary resurgence in 1976.

Of course, “America’s Mayor” isn’t the Gipper.  In fact, no one in the 2008 GOP presidential field was, is, or will be Ronald Reagan.  Nor should they try to be.  But while all of the Republicans contenders can lay claim to the heritage of Reagan’s presidency in various ways, whether in their communication style, conservative values or tough foreign policy, Rudy Giuliani’s best attribute in common with the Gipper is something conservative candidates have been short on recently – accomplishments. 

And what accomplishments (emphasis added):

While all remember what New York City used to be, few seem to remember the visceral disgust and hopeless that once shadowed Gotham.  New York was Dante’s seventh level, a city whose future seemed best depicted in movies like Escape From New York where the last vestiges of order had been stripped away.  It was the epitome of liberal mismanagement and it was beyond salvation.  Certainly New York couldn’t be saved and certainly not by a Republican mayor who espoused a law-and-order, fiscally conservative mantra.  Before Giuliani’s tenure, doing what he accomplished with New York wasn’t considered difficult – it was considered impossible.  And perhaps the great intangible of Rudy’s candidacy is how he did it – by utterly pissing off the liberal establishment.

Is he perfect – especially as a conservative?  Of course not:

But a presidential race isn’t a mix-and-match set where we can combine Thompson’s wit, McCain’s conviction, Rudy’s record, Huckabee’s charm and Newt’s brain in Romney’s body.  To ape Donald Rumsfeld, you go to an election with the candidates that you have, not the candidates you want. 

But Rudy Giuliani has made a political life out of doing the things that others say cannot be done.  At a time when the general public has doubts about GOP competency, Giuliani has demonstrated an agenda and a record that doesn’t ask for blind trust from the electorate but merely asks them to open their eyes to what he has accomplished.  

 Read the whole thing.

We – and by “we” I mean Republicans, conservatives and America – could do much worse.

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 5:56 am and is filed under Campaign '08, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.