Sure Giuliani is lame, but he's also crazy!

[marmar]

from The American Prospect:


CRAZIANI. Giuliani's foreign policy manifesto is, as Steven says, lame. But don't sell it short, it's also very crazy! Giuliani is doubling down on hawkishness, arguing for everything from large-scale increases in military spending to the effective abolition of the UN and a retreat to an expanded NATO. This is coming in a document that the Giuliani campaign knows will be read primarily by media types, policy elites, and hardcore political junkies. That he's putting so little effort into signaling some sort of sanity to these observers is doubly unsettling. Add in that his advisers range from nuts to nuttiest (Norman Podhoretz) and the whole thing takes on a disturbing coherence.

Giuliani is as unreconstructed a representative as that movement currently has in national politics, and there's no sign that any of his posturing is disingenuous. He's also a "tough guy," and so gets that heuristic credibility on national security issues from guys like Chris Matthews. It's all quite dangerous. Many liberals, for reasons I don't understand, seem to have a serene confidence that Giuliani will self-destruct, and so we need hardly worry about him. I think that's false as a predictive matter, but also misunderstands his effect, which is to help drag the whole primary to the right and force the other candidates to come up with similarly dangerous foreign policies in order to fend off Giuliani's challenge, In much the same way that Edwards has elevated the progressivism and seriousness of the Democratic candidates on social policy, Giuliani is ensuring that the Republican primary will hew close to the most discredited, extremist strain of conservative foreign policy thought.

--Ezra Klein

Posted by Ezra Klein on August 15, 2007 11:46 AM | Permalink

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tapped_archive?month=08&year=2007&base_name=post_4582#017628

[Democrat 4 Ever]

1. Check out this review of Loopy Rudy's foreign policy essay.

Rudy, the Anti-Statesman
Giuliani's loopy foreign-policy essay.
By Fred Kaplan
Posted Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007, at 1:18 PM ET
Rudy Giuliani's essay in the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, laying out his ideas for a new U.S. foreign policy, is one of the shallowest articles of its kind I've ever read. Had it been written for a freshman course on international relations, it would deserve at best a C-minus (with a concerned note to come see the professor as soon as possible). That it was written by a man who wants to be president--and who recently said that he understands the terrorist threat "better than anyone else running"--is either the stuff of high satire or cause to consider moving to, or out of, the country.

The article contains so many bizarre statements, it's hard to know where to start, so let's begin at the beginning and go from there.

Fred Kaplan writes the "War Stories" column for Slate. He can be reached at [email protected].


To continue reading, click here.

http://www.slate.com/id/2172285/fr/nl/

Entire Loopy Rudy article in "Foreign Affairs" here -

http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20070901faessay86501/rudolph-giuliani/toward-a-realistic-peace.html?mode=print

[whistle]

2. Has Goulianni removed nuclear weapons off the table and placed

...them all on the tips of missiles and underbellies of the Stealth Bombers? That should get the toothless reThuglicon moonshine laced koolaid drinking rednecks fully behind him as he advocates the genocide of every muslim in the world.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

3. I thought the very same thing. I was worried about him - but then

when I saw him in the debate - I realized he was crazy - never knew enough about him = guess I was just like the average citizen on that account - 9-11 leader. But, if he wins the nomination - all the dirty laundry will come out - if we run a decent dem - he'll also look uninformed. Plus - the real wingnuts won't go out an stuff the ballot box for him because of his stance on gays and abortion. So we're set - that is of course unless we nominate HRC. Too many people despise her and the wingnuts will forget about the gays and abortion and come out in droves to vote her down.

[Katherine Brengle]

4. "Craziani"

is both hilarious and terrifyingly true.

He's a nutjob just like the rest of them.

[TwilightGardener]

5. Rudy, I'm sure, understands nothing of what he's actually espousing--

he's simply a mouthpiece for pure, unadulterated, neocon foreign policy philosophy.