The Politico Claims Rudy Has "National Security Stature," Compares Him To Eisenhower

[babylonsister]

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/may/29/the_politico_claims_rudy_has_national_security_stature

The Politico Claims Rudy Has "National Security Stature," Compares Him To Eisenhower
By Greg Sargent | bio

Today's lead story in The Politico claims that social conservatives are supporting Rudy Giuliani despite his views on abortion and gay rights, offering the following astonishing explanation for this:

Giuliani has tried to appeal to social conservatives, embracing their agenda by pledging to appoint "strict constructionists" to the Supreme Court, using Justices John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr. as examples. Conservatives expect "strict constructionists" to determine that the Constitution does not mandate abortion rights.

But, like Dwight Eisenhower's in 1952, Giuliani's national security stature after the Sept. 11 attacks more likely explains his continued popularity within the religious right, whose voters have long held hawkish positions on the issue.

So we're now writing that Rudy outright has "national security stature?"

In the real world, of course, Rudy doesn't have national security stature at all. He was a mob-busting U.S. Attorney, ran New York as mayor for two terms, walked through the smoke and dust on 9/11, then did a bit of globe-trotting as part of his post-mayoralty moneymaking efforts. Rudy has no national security experience of any kind -- let alone "stature" in this field.

By contrast, Dwight Eisenhower -- with whom Rudy is astonishingly compared here -- had served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, as well as becoming the first supreme commander of NATO, before becoming President.

What Rudy does have is an aura of national security experience -- that is, the appearance of having it, or something like it, anyway -- based on the fact that he happened to be Mayor of New York on 9/11. One gains "stature" in a given field when they have actual experience in it. Even if you agree that Rudy's post 9/11 leadership was admirable, it simply doesn't constitute an achievement in the field of national security. Rudy's aura of national security experience is a media creation, nothing more, helped along by silly passages like this one in The Politico.

We wouldn't be stamping our feet about this if it didn't make a larger point with far-reaching implications for the Presidential race: If the media, and Rudy's political rivals, cede Rudy the aura of national security experience based on nothing other than his performance on 9/11, he stands a much better chance of becoming President. Descriptions of the candidates matter.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. What operational theater of WWII did Rudy command?

[Clark2008]

2. Amazing how a chickenhawk who did nothing but run around like

a, well, chicken on 9/11 has "national security stature," while the media ignores covering folks like Wes Clark and their speech at Standford University.

:eyes:

[AX10]

3. Politico has already been established an arm of the...

right wing media machine.

[babylonsister]

5. I know, I know, I KNOW! I'm just the messenger!

:hi: Look where I found that; I don't even give hits to Politico anymore...

[blm]

14. Exactly - any GOP chickenhawk will be an instant hero and fighter of terrorism

while any Dem with the ACTUAL credentials in the military and in tracking terrorism for years BEFORE 9-11 will be painted as a risk.

[Colobo]

4. Ike > Rudy

[FrenchieCat]

6. Have they fucking gone nuts?

They kept saying that Clark was no Eisenhower in 2003-04 (although Clark won a war, was SACEUR, a retired general and most decorated officer SINCE Ike).....but Ghouliani is Ike in 2008? :wtf:

[Doctor_J]

7. Yes, I remember Rudy was Allied Commander during Nam

Oh, wait.

1. We didn't have any allies, and
2. Rudy was home cheating on one of his wives.

[FrenchieCat]

8. draft deferments that kept Giuliani, 62, out of Vietnam while he attended law school

FrenchieCat (1000+ posts) Thu May-17-07 07:49 PM
Original message
IMPORTANT to NOTE! RUDI is a DRAFT DODGER!

Speaking about terrorism and the Iraq war last week, Giuliani boasted, "It is something I understand better than anyone else running for president."

But it was draft deferments that kept Giuliani, 62, out of Vietnam while he attended law school.

He was granted a 2-A occupational deferment for his job as a law clerk in 1969 after his boss, the late Manhattan federal Judge Lloyd MacMahon, wrote a letter to the local draft board - a move criticized years later as rare and questionable.

Law clerks were not on the 1968 list of critical jobs that qualified for occupational deferments.

When the deferment expired in 1970, Giuliani became susceptible again - but lucked out with such a high draft number that it would have been unnecessary to attempt to continue his exemption. He was never called.

Giuliani "has made it clear that if he had been called up, he would have served," Giuliani spokeswoman Katie Levinson told New York magazine. He was opposed to the war in Vietnam on "strategic and tactical" grounds," she added, although she wouldn't offer specifics.

"Voters will choose the next commander-in-chief based on their whole record, and we believe the mayor's record speaks for itself."
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04152007/news/regionalnews/rudy_is_chilled_by_draft_regionalnews_cathy_burke.htm

[Cameron27]

9. That's funny, not...

"Giuliani "has made it clear that if he had been called up, he would have served," Giuliani spokeswoman Katie Levinson told New York magazine."

He was called to serve, but the weasel hid behind a bogus law clerk deferment.:eyes:

[venable]

10. down is up

and black is white

and rudy has stature

[TreasonousBastard]

11. Aw, geez, it's really 1984 and Newspeak...

is here. Once was a time when even the most craven wretches wouldn't try to say something like that in public with a straight face. Except maybe in Pravda, where that sort of thing was normal, and laughed at by Russians. Damn, even Hearst in his heyday wouldn't be so obvious.

Says something that this kind of bullshit is being thrown, and I don't blame it on the bullshitters, but on people who hear it and don't throw it back.

Pogo knew stuff, too, maybe even more than Winston Smith cause he lived longer, and Pogo says we have met the enemy, and it is us.

[MaineDem]

12. More proof Politico is a waste of perfectly good bandwidth. n/t

[Adelante]

13. Well, now I've heard absolutely everything

:wtf:

[Totally Committed]

15. Politico has jumped the shark with this one!

I rest my case....




Wes Clark? Indeed.




John Kerry? Yup.




Al Gore? Certainly.


But, Rudy?




Uh, not so much.




TC