Time for Hoffman to un-un-concede

NY - Guiliani (0.00 / 0)

Rudy's decision to NOT run for governor and the senate instead is probably because he took at look at the new polls

From RealClearPolitics.com:

Marist
New York Governor
Cuomo 53, Giuliani 43 --- Cuomo +10

Marist
New York Senate
Giuliani 54, Gillibrand 40  --- Giuliani +14

From TPM:

On the heels of a New York Times report that Rudy Giuliani won't be running for Governor of New York, the New York Daily News now reports that Rudy will instead run for Senate against appointed Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand -- and that if elected, he'll use it as a stepping stone to make another run for President!

The Daily News cites a source close to Rudy:

   If elected, the source said, he would use that as a stepping stone to run for President in 2012 - and would not run for re-election to the Senate. A Giuliani spokeswoman downplayed the reports.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo...
.

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by: Leah @ Thu Nov 19, 2009 at 17:11:51 PM CST

does ANYONE, left or right, take Rudy seriously anymore? (0.00 / 0)

i have more respect for sarah palin, and i have none for her!

let him run for whatever he wants, he is a joke. outside of new york, i doubt he gets twelve votes for anything.

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by: UplandPoet @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 05:46:08 AM CST

Yes (0.00 / 0)

Don't underestimate Giuliani.

He had a foolish Presidential campaign that didn't really give the country an idea of his abilities. He's every bit as formidable as Schwarzenegger.

Of course, you're talking about a Presidential run. And last time, when he was the front-runner, I predicted the collapse months before, because it was clear his popularity in the polls had nothing to do with who he actually was.

But with the GOP in such disarray, who knows? If the GOP decides it doesn't want to get hung up on social issues, Rudy could be there guy. A Senatorial stint could be enough to help him rebrand himself, and Rudy's a skillful enough politician that he might be able to pull off the notion that he let himself be managed for the first campaign, and won't let that happen again.

But yeah, I doubt he'll decide to run for President again. If he manages to get in the Senate, though, he wouldn't be a back-bencher or a joke.

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by: SarahLawrence Scott @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 09:07:13 AM CST

[ Parent ]

Sure (0.00 / 0)

It's easy to take Rudy (or was that Ruby) seriously...

Now, I don't have anything against cross dressers, but he's not even a good one, except he was convincing looking at the old grandma on SNL. ;o)

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by: MisterEd @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 09:14:48 AM CST

[ Parent ]

one wonders about his judgement (0.00 / 0)

even for a laugh, i dont see how that helped him, at all.

Between this, and the "Florida" strategy, and the idea that his whole campaign was that he was major when he let several hundred city employees die on 9/11 due to mismanagement and underfunding, i think his only base would be people dumber than palin fans, and for them, he is too liberal. his base seems to be liberal dumb people who live in fear of terrorism, seems like a small base....

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by: UplandPoet @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 09:52:29 AM CST

Giuliani (0.00 / 0)

I might vote for him in the right race. The base you're describing are the people who inflated his numbers in the Presidential run-up, and then evaporated.

I did vote for him once, by the way, and it was the wrong vote. I also voted against him once, and I think that was also the wrong vote.

Here's my take on him:

First of all, he's a wonk. In that sense, he's the anti-Palin. His budget addresses while he was mayor were really impressive. They were not ideological, they got down into the details, and yet they were also accessible. In his first term as mayor, he was a very effective manager of a city that is notoriously difficult to manage. And his weekly radio call-in show was evocative of Bill Clinton, with him fielding questions on a wide variety of topics, many of them quite specific, deftly and empathetically.

Next, he's a crusader. (Hmm--that's a loaded word post-9/11, but hopefully you know what I mean.) He identified what he saw as the biggest problems facing the city, and then mowed them down. In the second term, though, he ran out of easy targets. So he was left with either immovable objects, like the school system, or ridiculous ones, like jaywalkers. Notice that his crusades were only vaguely ideologically conservative.

He's also got a screw loose. He fixates on strange things, sometimes. His personal life is unconventional, to say the least. He relishes a challenge, even if it's one of his own making that distracts from other things he's trying to do.

While he's not overly ideological (assuming the ill-fated Presidential run was "not the real Rudy"), he does let personal loyalty cloud his judgement. He was a DA, and so he likes cops. And when individual cops went bad under his administration, he still favored the cops. Likewise, he likes Bernie Kerik, and didn't use good judgement there.

As far as the cross-dressing, you don't think that played well in New York City, coming from a Republican mayor? Not as some sort of simple pander, but as a kind of promise that he couldn't go to over the top on social issues, or else people would use these pictures to lambast him? He knew what he was doing, and we New Yorkers did, too.

Personally, I decided after his second term that he shouldn't be elected to executive positions. His judgement is sometimes poor, and the crusading thing can get to be a problem.

But as a legislator, where he's free to be both wonk and crusader, and yet have others reign him in when he's just being plain wacky? He'd be a very effective Senator, I bet.

If you gave me a chance to magically substitute Giuliani for some Senator, there are only a handful of Republicans I'd take over him, and I don't think that even includes Snowe. (Rudy would have more influence on others, and might be able to form a nucleus of maverick Republicans that would cross over on some of this stuff.) I'd replace Lieberman with him, if I could. And there are even some Democrats I might pick him over--better a Republican who could help us pick off a few others on some issues than an obstructionist Democrat. (And no, I wouldn't replace Gillibrand right now. We'd have to see how a campaign went.)

Of course, I'm assuming that the "old Rudy" will reemerge, and that the post-9/11 Rudy hasn't suppressed him forever. If he ran for New York Senate, we'd probably find out.

And yes, this is DCW, and I'm admitting some interest in a current Republican. But I'm doing it as a warning: don't underestimate this guy. He's no Reagan, but he's no Palin either.

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by: SarahLawrence Scott @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 10:28:22 AM CST

[ Parent ]

than ks, but for your closing comment, the best thing i can say about reagan is that he is dead. (0.00 / 0)

not that i wanted anybody to shoot him, though i liked bush one better than reagan, i just dont like shooting in general and really dont like when it is used to undo the ballot box, but i had less than zero use for him, i think he was the palin before there was a palin....

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by: UplandPoet @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 11:40:16 AM CST

I think Palin's a passing fad (0.00 / 0)

My distinction here is between political effectiveness and power and being a clown. Like him or not (and I didn't like him), Reagan was a tremendously effective politician. I know some think Palin will be, too, but she seems more like a fad to me.

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by: SarahLawrence Scott @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 11:58:11 AM CST

[ Parent ]

AZ - McCain (0.00 / 0)

John McCain Could Lose Senate Primary To Tea Party Supporter

Snip

Rasmussen has McCain at 45% and Hayworth at 43% (4% margin of error).

Snip

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

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by: Leah @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 15:30:21 PM CST

Wow! (0.00 / 0)

So, does McCain try to appease the teabaggers, or take them on? Faced with this potential challenge, I could see him going either way...

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by: SarahLawrence Scott @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 15:48:31 PM CST

[ Parent ]

i think if he or any of these "moderate republicans" (0.00 / 0)

many of who are not even a little bit moderate, but they tend to be rational, try appeasing the tea baggers, they will fail. if they do not start pulling together, the baggers boot the traditional republican candidates and the end of the GOP as we know it begins, where W is considered a moderate!

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by: UplandPoet @ Fri Nov 20, 2009 at 18:27:37 PM CST