"Guliani: Worse than Bush" - Rolling Stone

[Beaverhausen]

Sorry if this has already been posted.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/14952564/giuliani_worse_than_bush

Giuliani: Worse Than Bush

He's cashing in on 9/11, working with Karl Rove's henchmen and in cahoots with a Swift Boat-style attack on Hillary. Will Rudy Giuliani be Bush III?

Matt TaibbiPosted May 31, 2007 8:59 AM


Early Wednesday, May 16th, Charleston, South Carolina. The scene is a town-hall meeting staged by GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, only a day after he wowed a patriotic Republican crowd at a nationally televised debate with a righteous ass-kicking of the party's latest Hanoi Jane, terrorist sympathizer Ron Paul. A bump in the polls later, "America's Mayor" is back on the campaign trail -- in a room packed with standard-issue Adorable Schoolchildren, in this case beatific black kids in elementary school uniforms with wide eyes and big RUDY stickers pinned to their oblivious breasts.

Giuliani has good stage presence, but his physical appearance is problematic -- virtually neckless, all shoulders and forehead and overbite, with a hunched-over, Draculoid posture that recalls, oddly enough, George W. Bush, the vestigial stoop of a once-chubby kid who grew up hiding tittie pictures from nuns. Not handsome, not cuddly, if he wins this thing it's going to be by projecting toughness and man-aura. But all presidential candidates have to play the baby-kissing game, and here is an early chance for Rudy to show his softer side.

"So," he whispers to the kids. "What do you all want to be when you grow up? Do any of you know?"

A bucktoothed boy raises his hand.

"I wanna be a doctor," he says, "and a lawyer."

The crowd laughs, then looks at Rudy expectantly. The obvious line is "A doctor and a lawyer? Whaddya want to do, sue yourself?" and you can see Rudy physically straining for the joke. But this candidate's funny bone is a microscopic thing, like one of those anvil-shaped deals in the ear, and the line eludes him.

"A doctor and a lawyer, huh?" he says, grinning nervously. "Uh . . . whaddya want to do, sue the doctor?"

My notes from that moment read: Chirping crickets

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way more at the link

[HockeyMom]

1. Toss up

They are both bullies and corrupt. I have always thought they are very similar. I would only give Rudy a few positives over Bush in that Rudy decided to stick to his guns on choice and gays. Bush on the other hand, who used to be for choice and seemingly neutral on gay issues, pandered to the religious right for their votes. Then again, maybe Rudy is looking for crossover votes on these issues?

Call it a wash then.

[THUNDER HANDS]

2. i think a Guiliani presidency would be much more like a Nixon presidency

A smart, paranoid, tough guy, control freak.

[benEzra]

3. Guliani says freedom is about giving the government power over you...

seriously.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A01E2D9173CF933A15750C0A962958260

Guliani: "We look upon authority too often and focus over and over again, for 30 or 40 or 50 years, as if there is something wrong with authority. We see only the oppressive side of authority. Maybe it comes out of our history and our background. What we don't see is that freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do."

(Interruption by someone in the audience.)

Guliani: "You have free speech so I can be heard."

That explains a LOT about Mr. Guliani's positions--on free speech, on gun bans, on 4th amendment violations, the works.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Rudy_Giuliani

Worst of all, he isn't an incompetent authoritarian like Gonzales et al. His police state would be a model of efficiency. I bet all the trains would run on time, too...

[opihimoimoi]

4. Rudys Rules: FOLLOW ME........he is the AUTHORITY, the DECIDER, and the LEADER all at once

Yeah....right......ain't gonna happen