August 31, 2004

Rudy and John

Like most Democrats, I love John McCain, and have spent a lot of time over the last four years wishing he was president (not so much Al Gore though). He gave a very good speech last night, with lots of great stuff about the War on Terror, and the gratuitous shot at Fat Fat Fatty was merely gravy. My favorite part:

"Our enemies have made clear the danger they pose to our security and to the very essence of our culture - liberty.

Only the most deluded of us could doubt the necessity of this war. Like all wars, this one will have its ups and downs.

But we must fight.

We must.

The sacrifices borne in our defense are not shared equally by all Americans.

But all Americans must share a resolve to see this war through to a just end."

As for Rudy? I love the guy, and meeting him the other night was a thrill, but I’ve gotta say the speech was a disappointment. It had its flourishes, but it was way too long, and all over the map in terms of both theme and tone. Christopher Caldwell had the best take, in the Weekly Standard:
“A magnificent 18-minute kernel of post--September 11 reminiscences, humor, anti-Kerry invective, and skillful courtship of the Jewish vote (by linking decades of terrorism against Israel to contemporary terrorism against America) was bloated into a 45-minute shaggy-dog story by Giuliani's own extemporizing. Some editor failed to stand up to him.”
One other thing: the story Rudy told about, on 9/11, telling Bernard Kerik “thank God George Bush is president"? It just rang false for some reason, as I have trouble believing Rudy would take his time out from being a hero to say something like that. I myself was thinking about a lot of things that day, and presidential politics certainly wasn’t one of them- in fact, the implications of what Bush would do probably didn’t even enter my head in the first seven or eight hours after it all went down.

As I type this, activists are preparing to rush Madison Square Garden in what will probably be the week's most out-of-control event. Good thing we know The Terminator will be in the building.

Posted by Stephen Silver at August 31, 2004 06:13 PM
Comments

I had plodded along through 3+ hours of some muddy crap and some outright lies, but when Rudy tried that dumbass anecdote with him and Kerik, I threw the pen that I was using at the TV and changed the channel.

Posted by: Matthew :) at August 31, 2004 08:50 PM
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