Rudy Giuliani, entranced with the free ride he’s been getting from the press, has decided to insulate himself against questions from ordinary citizens, too. Does this remind you of GWB’s screened-and-scripted “town meetings.”
But I’m glad to see that James Boyce at the HuffingtonPost blog understands how the game is played. Don’t make a process complaint: just makes you sound like another prissy liberal. Call the guy a coward.
I propose that as an official Blue Blogistan talking point for the next year or so: why is Rudy Giuliani, who dodged the draft back in Vietnam days, afraid to take questions from ordinary folks? If anyone has the heart to dial in to right-wing talk radio or post on right-wing message boards, this is exactly the sort of line that will hurt him among the voters he’s looking to get on the basis of his dime-store machismo.
Where’s the guy with the chicken suit?
Footnote Just to be clear: I don’t think this line of attack is at all accurate. No doubt Rudy’s reluctance to take questions has to do with his belief that he can get away with it and his knowledge of his huge vulernabilities, rather than any pusillanimity on his part.
My reasons for wanting to knock Giuliani out of the race are entirely different. First, with McCain falling apart, I think he’s the only Republican who could win. Second, and more important: having worked in the Criminal Division at DoJ when Giuliani was Associate AG and followed his career since, I believe him to have the worst character of all those now running, or likely to run. A truly Nixonian figure, and no one’s fool. His idea for reconciling the conservative GOP base to his non-wingnut positions on some domestic issues and his anti-family-values personal life is to run as the candidate of those who want to fight World War IV against “the terrorists.”