Rudy Giuliani: Fear Monger

Rudy Giuliani recently announced his "Twelve Commitments to the American People." Take a look, there are some interesting things, but I only want to comment on the first: "I will keep America on offense in the Terrorists’ War on Us."

"War on Us?" Well, that doesn't sound as happy-go-lucky. Indeed, it sounds rather like, what's that phrase I'm thinking of? Oh yeah... fear mongering. Maybe I'm naive, and maybe I have too much faith in the American people, but six years after 9/11, I think the power of fear mongering has faded. And Rudy shouldn't be allowed to get away with it just because he was there. If I were Bill Maher, I would say, "New Rule: Rudy Giuliani has to get off the 9/11 train. We get it, you were there, you said some nice things to comfort some people, but honestly, any halfway decent mayor would have done just as good of a job. And let's face it, 9/11 is the only reason that you're politically relevant these days. You were lucky, Rudy. You're the Ringo Starr of the presidential race. So, stop pointing out that you're here for a really bad reason and just hope that no one catches on."

Bill Maher's funnier than I am. Oh well.

On a slightly different note, I was watching a Mitt ad, and something struck me.

When Republicans candidates talk about wasteful spending, they have to be talking about President Bush. So, when the Republican crowds cheer for these Republican candidates, they're really cheering against their Republican president, whom they probably still "strongly support" in polls. Perhaps this (i.e. suggesting that we need some rather vauge notiong of change) is the closest any of the Republicans will come to attacking Bush. We shall see.