How Badly Rudy Did
by Ryan Sager
Fri, 4 May 2007 at 1:23 PM
updated Fri, 4 May 2007 at 1:25 PM
There seems to be something of a counter-CW forming that Rudy Giuliani didn't actually do that badly in last night's debate, and people are now just piling on.
Well, as somebody with no vested interest in burying Mr. Giuliani — and someone certainly not part of the religious right that would like to do so — let me say he did very, very badly. Why, though, is a matter of some (pardon the pun) debate...
First off, Mr. Giuliani did not do badly because he is socially liberal. The problem wasn't the substance of his answers to the questions. He's not pro-life, and he's not going to win voters who vote just on that issue. And aside from his abortion answer, he didn't say anything else that would substantively anger the social-conservative base.
He also didn't do badly because he didn't know the answers. I've read some criticism of his Sunni vs. Shia answer. It certainly wasn't a riveting answer. But it was a knowledge question, and he knew the answer and stated it succinctly. I honestly doubt the current president could have answered it.
He did badly because ... he wasn't being himself.
Partly, I really think the format cut against him. As I said last night, I despise these 10-candidate debates. No one has a chance to get comfortable or say much that's intelligent.
But there was also the central question of: Who is Rudy Giuliani? Watching last night's debate, I honestly couldn't have answered that question. Is he a social liberal running against the Republican Party's right wing? It would be a terrible strategy, but at least we'd know who he is. Is he a social liberal converting to social conservatism for the sake of political expediency (i.e., the Mitt Romney model)? Again, I'm not saying this is a great idea, but it would be coherent.
I've expected Mr. Giuliani to run as ... Rudy Giuliani. A New Yorker, a social liberal, a fiscal conservative, a conservative reformer with a record of success in an overwhelmingly liberal city, and an anti-terror hawk with no questions as to who our friends are and who our enemies are. That guy could win the nomination. And that guy has been on the campaign trail, at least some of the time. His speech at CPAC was a perfect model of how to say: We agree on some things, we disagree on some things, but given our current circumstances, we agree on what's important.
Mr. Giuliani can still be this candidate. But he looked so contorted last night, so uncomfortable in his own skin, that something serious has to change in his campaign's approach.
In other words: Let Rudy be Rudy.
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