Rudy Giuliani, Teflon Candidate

[EV_Ares]

Scandals are non-stories for 'America's Mayor'

Does Republican presidential hopeful Rudolph Giuliani have some dirt on the press corps? How else to explain the free pass journalists have repeatedly granted him on stories that would threaten to sink less-favored candidates, particularly of the Democratic variety? (See sidebar.)

If Ronald Reagan was the “Teflon president” to whom no bad news would stick, then Giuliani would seem to be the Teflon candidate.

Consider Giuliani’s campaign in South Carolina, perhaps the most important primary in the GOP schedule, and the state on which Giuliani has pinned his hopes for the nomination. In June, Giuliani state campaign chair and South Carolina Treasurer Thomas Ravenel was indicted for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine (Rock Hill, S.C., Herald, 6/19/07) and forced to step down from the campaign. On September 6, he pled guilty to a federal charge of possession with intent to distribute cocaine (Charleston Post and Courier, 9/6/07).

Ravenel’s campaign job was quickly filled by his father, Arthur Ravenel, who nearly as quickly was revealed to have smeared the NAACP as “the National Association for Retarded People” in 2000 (Austin-American Statesman, 1/9/00).

The news that an important official in the supposed law-and-order candidate’s campaign was moonlighting as a crack dealer was surprisingly hard to find. The Washington Post (6/20/07) covered the bust with a 100-word squib on page A4, mentioning that Ravenel had endorsed Giuliani but failing to mention his key campaign job. The New York Times ran an Associated Press report (6/20/07) on page 11. Neither paper reported on the guilty plea, nor on the elder Ravenel’s NAACP slur.
With so little attention from these agenda-setting papers, it’s unsurprising that Giuliani’s hapless South Carolina campaign received little national coverage: No nightly network news show so much as mentioned it.


entire article @ link: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3214

[no_hypocrisy]

1. With a certain amount of time, teflon is prone to chip.

There is soooo much on Rudy the NY metropolitan areas knows about that the rest of the country will eventually hear about. Rudy can't explain away every single abuse as mayor.

[underpants]

2. First of all everyone is giving him a pass in Iowa, NH, AND SC

The pundits have decided that it doesn't matter what happens there. Basically he gets to take on whomever is left.

:eyes:

Look I really wouldn't worry about him. He is teflon just because the right has such an ingrained distrust of the media (except Fox News of course) but in the General election he will be shredded apart.

Huckabee is worth worrying about. He is actually a Freeper.

[npincus]

3. Teflon, no more. New Clemson U, SC Poll has Ghouliaini in 4th Place:

drip, drip, drip....

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/11/29/486718.aspx

A new Clemson University South Carolina poll has Romney at 17%, Thompson 15%, Huckabee 13%, Giuliani is at 9%. About 28% say they are still undecided/