3 posts tagged “rudy giuliani”

What was your reaction to the results of the Iowa caucuses?  

Total surprise. I thought I wouldn’t care but I do. Last time, the Democrats had a clear front-runner in the form of Sen. John Kerry and I found that sparked a greater interest for me, to see how he would fare against President Bush. This time, the interest comes from how unpredictable the fight is.
   I would not have predicted Obama, Edwards and Clinton for the Dems, and I would not have predicted Huckabee, Romney and Thompson for the GOP.
   Go back two years and most of my GOP friends were pessimistic because the only candidates they could foresee were John McCain and Rudy Giuliani. Others, perhaps prescient, said there would be a surprise candidate that must emerge closer to the end of 2007. They were right.
   I thought Fred Thompson might have been that man but there certainly has been a lot of attention surrounding Gov. Huckabee. That momentum continued.
   Among my Democrat friends, the hope a few years back was that Al Gore would consider running. Back in 2004 I had good friends who felt Edwards supported their values more and were disappointed that Sen. Kerry emerged as the front-runner in Iowa. Through 2007 I had next to no Democratic friends who felt Sen. Clinton was right for them.
   I am glad the usual rule of “who spends the most wins” did not apply for either party here. It is another example of branding: a good consistent brand that taps in to the consciousness can outweigh huge spends. And that’s something I hope will buoy smaller parties in New Zealand as we face our General Election this year.
   Now that the Iowa caucus item is over, the BBC is running a Britney Spears–K. Fed. story.

Hillary Clinton has upset over the anti-Obama comments made by one of her reps.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iviufLueJCRqiUapUAxXQ3yACUqAD8THFBOG0

So he’s gone from her campaign.
   There are two interpretations:

• if you mess with Hillary over expressing your own free will, then the Patriot Act is going to look like a walk in the park;
• Barack Obama is her choice for running-mate. So leave the man alone.

   And a Clinton–Obama ticket is going to be hard to beat in marketing terms because both candidates have had a huge MSM build-up.
   Who does the GOP have? Romney–Huckabee? Now that I say it, it sounds pretty good, but it also sounds like it belongs to an episode of Bewitched as a rival agency to McMahon & Tate. Damn, Obama is just an exotic surname in an age of internationalism. A marketer’s dream.
   Thompson and another yet-to-emerge Law & Order cast member? Somehow, I think we won’t see FDT in the vernacular with Fred polling so low in New Hampshire—except maybe as a typo when someone is trying to type FDR.
   Giuliani and someone that the Democrats will rip into? McCain and … um … well, heck, just McCain?
   We are talking a lot of lost ground in terms of publicity here for the Republican Party. It needs to wake up and stand united, and with someone very, very credible that will beat the Democrats on substance—then brand it all correctly.

I believe Sen. Barack Obama is right to have admitted to drug use, including cocaine, in his youth. It serves several purposes:

• disarming Republicans or journalists who want to snoop;
• if he’s prepared to admit to this, then it’s unlikely he has more skeletons in his closet.

And one of his campaigners gave a good response when it was raised privately by someone working for the Clinton campaign: ‘Senator Clinton’s campaign is recycling old news that Barack Obama has been candid about in a book he wrote years ago, and he’s talked about the lessons he’s learned from these mistakes with young people all across the country. He plans on winning this campaign by focusing on the issues that actually matter to the American people.’
   It actually sounds like the sort of line Bill Clinton used in 1992.
   However, I am worried on numerous counts. I would prefer a leader who had stronger principles as a young lad, showing that it is possible to not take a ruinous path. I have a problem with the prospect that young people will say, ‘Hey, I am smoking pot, and it works for me now, so dammit, I’ll just keep doing it till I have the realization Barack Obama did.’
   It takes the responsibility of refraining from drug use away.
   I admire Sen. Obama for owning up to his past and telling us the lessons he learned—but I do not think I would run for office if I had his history. Then, being drug- and tobacco-free, I cannot truly say I know how he thinks. Maybe this is a good way to remove a lot of the guilt and to encourage those who have taken drugs to get off them. Personally, however, I don’t see it.
   Sen. Obama comes across, image-wise, negatively to me—not because of the drug past but he just seems like yet another typical politician. As with Sen. Clinton or Mr Giuliani, he tries to say politically nice things.
   I think Americans might want a straight talker as their 44th President. I still don’t know what half of these candidates vying for their party’s nomination stand for based on their voting record or press statements. And when I do, they come across as hypocritical.