This campaign -- for a political junkie like me -- has been a lot of fun. I've been anticipating these few days before the Iowa caucuses for some time now and, so far, the candidates are delivering -- well, at least the Republicans are anyway.
I always thought Giuliani would have to survive some serious hits to win the nomination. After all, he is on his third wife, who was his mistress while he was mayor of New York. He is estranged from his children. Video footage exists of him dressed in drag, kissing Donald Trump. (I'm still waiting for Mike Huckabee to use that in one of his ads). His close friend and former chief of police, Bernie Kerik is in all sorts of trouble with mob ties. He has no real foreign policy experience. Well, all of that has come out, plus Shag-gate where we find out that Giuliani hid the fact that he was using city money to protect his mistress with NYPD escorts. He now claims that everything was "transparent." Right... that's generally the way people handle their mistresses -- with transparency. I'm sure wife #2 knew what was going on.
It appears that Giuliani's strategy to overcome his growing pile of scandals is to say "9/11" as often as possible -- even if it has no relevancy to what he's saying. (Actually, that was his original campaign strategy, too. It's just become a little more desperate lately.) Like today, for instance, in response to John McCain questioning his national security experience, Giuliani responded, "Well, all of us have our different experiences that we rely on. I would say that my experience goes back well before Sept. 11."
I'm not sure how 9/11 gives Rudy national security experience. To whatever extent Rudy was involved in national security on 9/11, he did a really shitty job.
Then there's Mitt Romney. Romney, as you are likely aware, is a former governor of Massachusetts. Now, in order to be elected governor of Massachusetts as a Republican, one has to take some rather liberal positions -- and Romney did. Now, just couple years later, Romney has positioned himself so far to the right, an average person could easily mistake him for a rabid dog during his speeches. Mitt is against evolution, global warming, taxes, stem cells, jihadists, big government, and hippies. Oh, and he really hates Mexicans -- er... immigrants. Unfortunately for Mitt, he was for most of those things about two weeks ago -- and there's video evidence. All of this has culminated a vociferous "anti-endorsement" editorial from the Concord Monitor where the paper calls him a "phony." Not to be outdone, the Union-Leader blasted Romney for making a "string of demonstrably false claims." Ouch.
It's getting interesting going into the final few days. The Republican "first tier" has 5 members: Giuliani, Romney, Huckabee, Thompson (sort of), and McCain. McCain's out of money, Huckabee doesn't know anything about Pakistan... My prediction: a 5-way tie for last place. As Bill Kristol said the other day, this thing has a chance to go to the convention. Of course, Kristol also thinks that Dick Cheney will emerge as the candidate and then beat the Democrat in November. I don't see why not... Cheney is beloved by all and is always honest with the American people. (A side note: evidently, the New York Times was so impressed with Kristol's bold prediction that they have decided to hire him. I predict that Benito Mussolini will emerge from the depths of hell and storm the GOP convention. Can I have a job too?)
