{"id":1959,"date":"2008-01-15T05:56:28","date_gmt":"2008-01-15T10:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=1959"},"modified":"2008-01-14T12:02:37","modified_gmt":"2008-01-14T17:02:37","slug":"a-vote-for-rudy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=1959","title":{"rendered":"A Vote For Rudy"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t “endorse” anyone – because, like, who cares what Mitch Berg<\/em> thinks?\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

First Ringer states a great case for\u00a0Giuliani<\/a>, though.<\/p>\n

Or…is it?:<\/p>\n

\n

He\u2019s down in the polls.\u00a0 His cash is low.\u00a0\u00a0TIME remarked\u00a0that his \u201chang-on insistence is all the more puzzling because of his lackadaisical campaigning style.\u201d\u00a0 That\u00a0he was \u201cout of gas.\u201d\u00a0 Rudy?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 Reagan<\/font><\/a>, before his stunning primary resurgence in 1976.<\/p>\n

Of course, \u201cAmerica\u2019s Mayor\u201d isn\u2019t the Gipper.\u00a0 In fact, no one in the 2008 GOP presidential field was, is, or will be Ronald Reagan.\u00a0 Nor should they try to be.\u00a0 But while all of the Republicans contenders can lay claim to the heritage of Reagan\u2019s presidency in various ways, whether in their communication style, conservative values or tough foreign policy, Rudy Giuliani\u2019s best attribute in common with the Gipper is something conservative candidates\u00a0have been short on recently – accomplishments.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And what <\/em>accomplishments (emphasis added):<\/p>\n

\n

While all remember what New York City used to be, few seem to remember the visceral disgust and hopeless that once shadowed Gotham.\u00a0 New York was Dante\u2019s seventh level, a city whose future seemed best depicted in movies like Escape From New York<\/em> where the last vestiges of order had been stripped away.\u00a0 It was the epitome of liberal mismanagement and it was beyond salvation.\u00a0 Certainly New York couldn\u2019t be saved and certainly not by a Republican mayor who espoused a law-and-order, fiscally conservative mantra.\u00a0 Before Giuliani\u2019s tenure, doing what he accomplished with New York wasn\u2019t considered difficult – it was considered\u00a0impossible<\/em>.\u00a0 And\u00a0perhaps the great intangible of Rudy\u2019s candidacy is how he did it – by\u00a0utterly pissing\u00a0off the\u00a0liberal establishment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Is he perfect – especially as a conservative?\u00a0\u00a0Of course not:<\/p>\n

\n

But a presidential race isn\u2019t a mix-and-match set where we can combine Thompson\u2019s wit, McCain\u2019s conviction, Rudy\u2019s record, Huckabee\u2019s charm and Newt\u2019s brain in Romney\u2019s body.\u00a0\u00a0To\u00a0ape Donald Rumsfeld, you go to an election\u00a0with the candidates that you have, not\u00a0the candidates\u00a0you want.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Rudy Giuliani has made a political life out of\u00a0doing the things that others say cannot be done.\u00a0 At a\u00a0time when the general public\u00a0has doubts about\u00a0GOP competency, Giuliani has demonstrated an agenda and a record that\u00a0doesn\u2019t ask\u00a0for blind\u00a0trust from the electorate but merely asks them to open their eyes to what he has accomplished.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0Read the whole thing.<\/p>\n

We – and by “we” I mean Republicans, conservatives\u00a0and <\/em>America – could do much worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t “endorse” anyone – because, like, who cares what Mitch Berg thinks?\u00a0 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\u00a0Giuliani, though. Or…is it?: He\u2019s down […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-08","category-republicans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1959\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}