Oh, let us pray that McCain selects Rudy Giuliani as his running mate. Not only did he prove to be the worst political strategist in recent history ($60 million for zip!) but he has also set up Obama with hilariously ignorant remarks about how the post-9/11 thinkers like him, should still be favored over the post-Iraq thinkers like everyone else with a modicum of sense.

Giuliani's views are not pre-9/11, but they are pre-historic. "You club me, I club you. You look funny at me, I club you. You look at my club, I club you." Today he was particularly hilarious:

"Throughout this campaign, I have been very concerned that the Democrats want to take a step back to the failed policies that treated terrorism solely as a law enforcement matter rather than a clear and present danger. Barack Obama appears to believe that terrorists should be treated like criminals -- a belief that underscores his fundamental lack of judgment regarding our national security."

Why anyone would want to raise the wisdom of "taking a step back" after we've just stepped in a steaming lump of poop is beyond me. Does Giuliani think that refusing to chase down Osama bin Laden like the criminal he is was a good idea? Does anyone believe that the post-9/11 mindset of Bush, Rumsfeld & Cheney was not the perspective which actually showed a "fundamental lack of judgment regarding our national security?"

Yeah, about 20% of the electorate, according to the last poll I saw. This is a campaign strategy almost as smart as Giuliani's "just wait until Florida while I waste $60 million" plan that worked so well for him this year. This guy is really a slow learner.

Plus, his comments are like a Dan Rowan set-up-line for Dick Martin. Obama, as Giuliani would know if he had any political sense, gets to come back with his punch line with this today:

"These are the same guys who helped to engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could have pinned down the people who actually committed 9/11, This is the same kind of fear-mongering that got us into Iraq ... and it's exactly that failed foreign policy I want to reverse."

Nevermind that Obama doesn't believe that fighting terrorists is only a law enforcement issue. The truth is beside the point. It's the politics I marvel at. And Giuliani is a marvelous comic figure nowadays.

Don't worry about Giuliani, the voters didn't listen to him...hell, his own kids won't even talk to him.

Hey...Johnasskisser, unless you lived in NYC, and experienced what Rudy G. did for this city...Shut The Fuck Up!!

How about if John McCain selects Colin Powell, so we can balance the "race thing" out. Because I love the way the press,and everyone else for that matter, refers to BHO as an "African-American". He's half WHITE!! Half-a-Honky, always a Donkey.

He had a typicial upbringing, no pappy, mother off somewhere, raised by his White Grandmama, who he conveniently threw under the bus with the rest of his White relatives, so I guess the label: African-American fits him to a tee.

The bottom-line is that BHO is an empty suit Oreo, with change on his mind...that will leave only change in your pocket, who will sit down with terrorists and deal away the security and freedom of the people of this country. He has more hatred for this country's military then Slick Willie Clinton, has a wife who is almost the Bitch that Hillary is, and wants us all to believe that whatever racist bullshit escaped from the mouth of Rev. Wright every Sunday, did not sink into his big-earred head. Don't kid yourself... BHO believed every word that the Rev. spewed out. So G.D. BHO and Rev. Wright to hell.

Bull --

No one is discounting the leadership and calm that Rudy G. showed immediately after 9/11. However, now that he is a national figure commenting in the national press on national policy, it is fair for any American citizen to consider and disagree with his comments.

We are not just living in a post-9/11 world. We are living in a post-Iraq world. We are living in a world where a united Europe and a hostile China are looming on superpowerdom. Our national policies cannot be directed through the myopic lens of 9/11 -- as the Mayor and McCain's policies seem to be.

The Bush-McCain "post-9/11" foreign policy has been a disastrous exercise in cowboy diplomacy that alienated a world poised to like us again after half-a-century of increasing anti-Americanism. It is time for us to engage the world, not engage in combat with it. This is the foreign policy we should have had post-9/11; that is the foreign policy Obama offers; that is the wise course that McCain and Rudy G. stupidly criticize.

Beathan

Hey Bull,

You are absolutely correct!!!

We should do something about it. Are you a Clinton supporter who feels disenfrachised over the recent primaries? Do you feel Howard Dean and the DNC really screwed the pooch this time and want to show them (via your vote) how you feel? Do you feel that there's no possible way you can vote for Obama and no one can possibly change your opinion on the subject regardless of the facts?

Well don't waste your vote on John McCain, he's just another cog in the RNC machine.

Show the RNC that you don't want a wishy washy, flip flopping candidate.

Vote Bob Barr!!!

He's the real conservative.

the bull;

Your comment was so enlightening I thought I'd sample it and comment.

1. You called me "asskisser," an apparent juvenile reference to my name. My 11-year old is intellectually beyond that. I suggest you go back and get an education beyond the sixth grade.
2. You told me to "shut the f... up" unless I lived in New York City and appreciated all that Rudy Giuliani had done for New York City. I assume you are refferring to his standing in the street with a bullhorn which was indeed impressive. His negligence prior to the event, I suppose should not be taken into account, not his shameless self-promotion or his betrayal of firefigthers. Score one for you.
3. Your comparison of Obama to a "donkey" indicates tha you are a racist with beastiality tendencies, to put it politely. Your fantasy that General Powell would join Senator McCain's ticket when they are on opposite sides of the Iraq question indicates that you are a politically uniformed twit. Powell will vote for Obama whether or not he publicly supports him.
4. Insulting a person, again Obama, because his father deserted him as a child is so mind boggling that I no comment.
5. Calling Obama Oreo is racist and, again, indicates a need for a little education and hood and robe. Calling a woman a b... in a public blog is... ah heck-- consider yourself reported for abuse. You are beneath contempt and uniformed.

Hey John,

While I agree with most of what you've said in this post (esp. your comments to Mr. Bull), I have to disagree with your assertion that Rudy Giuliani is "the worst political strategist in recent history." Dollars aside, he was shrewd enough to realize what Biden, Dodd, Thompson, and others didn't:

1) losing by massive margins in your first contest guarantees you'll lose, and

2) you can tell ahead of time where you're most and least likely to lose by a massive margin.

Rudy pulled what was probably his best possible gambit: double down in a state you have a reasonable shot at, and hope that your name recognition, your numbers in early states ("without even campaigning there!") or some news on the terrorism front keeps you in the public's mind until then. Yes, he lost and lost big. Yes, it was probably inevitable. But it was slightly less inevitable than a loss for him in Iowa or NH would have been.

In fact, the worst political strategist in recent history is in fact MARK PENN, for reasons that have been exhaustively discussed here and elsewhere.

Hey Mr. Salientman;

You make a good point that Rudy probably could not have won the states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Wyoming, Michigan & Wyoming. If so, how could he have thought he could win at all?

But even if he were viable and this string of losses was inevitable, then he should not have competed at all in those states, making him look like a loser, particularly in New Hampshire, where he put all sorts of resources and time. Had he actually driven a stake in Florida and ignored the earlier contests altogether, he could have had a chance at winning. Or even in if he had decided on a Super-Tuesday strategy going for New York, California, Pensylvania, and New Jersey -- he could have possibly been ahead after that date with the winner take all system. Instead, he campaigned half-heartedly, spent his treasury down, and "waited" for Florida to come along. Then he started pumping in money too late.

Remember, until Florida, McCain wasn't even necessarily the favorite. Romney and Huckabee hung around for a long time, and Rudy could have avoided the loser label by deciding on a more winning strategy to garner large, industrial states. The party turned out to be so divided by McCain, Romney, and Huckabee, there could have been an opening.

His lead was so large and he spent $60 million for zero delegates, placing him in the Phil Graham, John Connally categeory for donor waste.

The Bull -

You obviously have some stong feelings here but thoughts and words expressed in such anger are not necessary and not appreciated. You have really abused this forum.

John and Beathan - good posts.