How very sad for those of us who once thought of former Mayor Rudy Guiliani as “America’s Mayor,” or those (like yours truly) who admired him before 911 occurred due to certain qualities he displayed. After 911, Guiliani seemingly could not say a sentence without…911…(“I’ll have a burger and fries and here’s $9.11 — will that cover it?”) but even so he was in that rare political class in America: a political class that today includes Colin Powell, Michael Bloomberg and included the 2000 less predictable incarnation of Arizona Senator John McCain. Former Bush Administration Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice is in that category as well. Political or government figures whose pronouncements carry far more heft than a partisan label — people who appeal to moderates, centrists and independents. Guiliani had started to shed that aura and lost a chunk of it when he ran for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2008, starting out the odds-on-favorite — until he campaigned. Or, rather, until he barely campaigned, was overtaken by others and fizzled in the end.
But how sad it is now to see him come full circle to become yet one more tiresome, chest-beating, screaming partisan who seems to be running for radio talk show host:
Not long after taking a few seconds of silence for those affected by Superstorm Sandy, Rudy Giuliani began ripping into President Barack Obama on Friday while speaking at major campaign event for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan in Ohio.
The former New York City mayor delivered a series of blistering zingers against the president, rallying the massive crowd with line after line of reasons why Obama should “resign” and faulting him for “incompetence” over the Libya consulate attacks.
With new numbers showing the unemployment rate had ticked up to 7.9%, Giuliani said the Obama administration should be “ashamed of themselves” for framing the figure as a positive sign. Giuliani, however, did not mention that 171,000 jobs were added last month–more than economists were expecting.
“He should resign! He told us he would resign if he did this poorly,” Giuliani said, referring to a 2009 interview in which Obama vowed to turn the economy around in three years, otherwise there would be a “one-term proposition.”
Giuliani continued to fire off: “He lied. He has been a disaster. The worst president for our economy in our lifetime. He doesn’t want a second term. He wants a second chance, because he screwed it up the first time.”
AND:
Giuliani received perhaps his biggest applause of the night when he focused on the Benghazi consulate attacks, which killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, in September. The administration is now investigating why the diplomatic post was not robustly staffed prior to and during the attacks.
The former mayor, a top surrogate for Romney’s campaign, argued the violence would not have happened if Sen. John McCain had won the presidential election in 2008.
“Maybe if we had a president who was paying attention, we wouldn’t be going through all this investigation of what’s being covered up about Libya,” he said.
He told the audience they have a chance to “right that wrong” by removing the president from office.
“You know that what happened in Libya is the result, at least, of incompetence,” he said.
America’s Mayor? No longer.
And, comparing him with Bloomberg, not even close to resembling New York’s Mayor.
Courage during 911?
Yes. A hero.
A profile in courage now?
No.
He’s not even a profile in coherence:
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.