November 2007 Archives

In an earlier post I said I thought Giuliani was unraveling and:

I think details of his affair with Judith Nathan while he was mayor will emerge and a lot of Republicans will begin to wonder how, exactly, his behavior differed from Bill Clinton's when he was in office.

I just read this comment from Doug:

Giuliani's behavior differs from Clinton's in that Clinton stayed married.

Amen to that. The Clintons have each and only been married to one another. That is to applauded.

Rudy has had a bad, bad week. There was the story alleging misuse of expenses while he was mayor. There was the unfortunate exchange with Romney to begin the debate. There was the campaign's rather week rebuttal to the Politico story.

And now there is this story out today:

In almost every appearance as he campaigns for the Republican presidential nomination, Rudolph W. Giuliani cites a fusillade of statistics and facts to make his arguments about his successes in running New York City and the merits of his views.

Discussing his crime-fighting success as mayor, Mr. Giuliani told a television interviewer that New York was “the only city in America that has reduced crime every single year since 1994.” In New Hampshire this week, he told a public forum that when he became mayor in 1994, New York “had been averaging like 1,800, 1,900 murders for almost 30 years.” When a recent Republican debate turned to the question of fiscal responsibility, he boasted that “under me, spending went down by 7 percent.”

All of these statements are incomplete, exaggerated or just plain wrong. And while, to be sure, all candidates use misleading statistics from time to time, Mr. Giuliani has made statistics a central part of his candidacy as he campaigns on his record.

Ooops.

The next week will tell us a lot about Giuliani. Will he come through this period as a statesman - as the man the world admired after 9/11? Will he have his own Howard Dean moment?

I think Giuliani is unraveling. I think details of his affair with Judith Nathan while he was mayor will emerge and a lot of Republicans will begin to wonder how, exactly, his behavior differed from Bill Clinton's when he was in office. Huckabee's rise puts Giuliani's character into even sharper focus because Huckabee is seen as a straight shooter. And to the degree that he isn't, he knows the Christian language of forgiveness and repentance and he will use it - with great efficacy. We'll see.

Today's NYT reports that food banks are low on food:

Food banks around the country are reporting critical shortages that have forced them to ration supplies, distribute staples usually reserved for disaster relief and in some instances close.

“It’s one of the most demanding years I’ve seen in my 30 years” in the field, said Catherine D’Amato, president and chief executive of the Greater Boston Food Bank, comparing the situation to the recession of the late 1970s.

To donate to America's Second Harvest, the nation's largest charitable hunger-relief organization, go here.

To find a local food bank, please go here.

Thanks for the great discussion about my last post on Darfur and Michael Vick. I want to start with a great and honest comment from one reader:

...humans are not "of greater worth" than animals. Humans *are* animals, and we are not the "best" animal either. That is purely a rather arrogant Judeo-Christian concept that is not shared by a great many people of other faiths in the world.

What this reader writes is an accurate description of what many people believe - whether they admit it or not. Charity reminded me of something I'd forgotten:

During the Katrina disaster and it's aftermath, I had a number of co-workers [more] worried about what happened to the animals than to the people who suffered. Maybe it is just because at the time I was a new Mom (though I doubt it). To me the human tragedy overshadowed the animals. I will never get out of my mind the picture of a woman standing on an overpass crying/screaming while dead bodies floated along the flooded streets in front of her.

I know several people who adopted pets from New Orleans. I'm thrilled that they did. They actually did something tangible to lessen Katrina's horror. They are doing more than I did.

But we will reach a frighteningly dangerous place in this world if we fail to believe human lives are more important than animal lives. If we really get to that point we will not have elevated animals to the level of man. We will have reduced the level of man to that of the animals. And that will not be good for us or for them.

I watched tonight's debate a couple of times - once on TV and then once online. I reached the same conclusion in both places. Mike Huckabee is on a huge roll, Rudy Giuliani is sucking wind, and Mitt Romney sounds like an automaton. And one more thing - the Republican party should listen to John McCain on torture.

It has long been said that Rudy Giuliani just doesn't wear well as a politician. He exudes a bit of that Howard Dean thing - that sense that he is creepy and potentially a bit unstable. When he was grilling Romney on the illegal immigrants he "employed" at the governor's mansion he just seemed bratty. Romney never hired them - they were part of a company that did maintenance work on the governor's mansion. But Giuliani kept pressing it and it made him look like an angry little man.

Giuliani and Romney couldn't have botched their answers on whether they believed "every word" in the Bible. Romney hemmed and hawed on it. "Well, yeah, sort of, yes, but, yes, well..." It wasn't pretty. Giuliani's answer that the story of Jonah and the whale was just an allegory won't go over terribly well in Christian conservative land. It is exactly the sort of thing that grassroots evangelicals associate with wishy-washy liberals.

In contrast, Hucakbee's frank, "Sure, I believe the Bible is exactly what it is - the word of revelation from us from God himself. ...you either believe it or you don't believe it" will be making the email rounds tomorrow morning in Christian circles across the country.

More than any of those things, however, Huckabee stands out because he is affable. He is unaffected. He sounds unscripted. He sounds honest and looks honest too. And his conservatism is a conservatism that doesn't sound draconian.

Think about this. Republicans have been decidedly unhappy about their options for more than a year now. They went with Giuliani or Romney because "they could beat Hillary." But that is just defense. In Huckabee, Republicans are finding a candidate who they actually like.

Can he win? That is a more traditional campaign cycle question than "can he beat the opposition." It may be the kind of question lots of Republicans find themselves asking and answering, "Well, he can if I help."

Simply put, Mike Huckabee can turn out the base that has been sitting home for the last year.