You Guys Don't Matter

The current presidential campaign tactics of Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani have recently been under a lot of scrutiny. For the Republicans, the first six primary contests have come and gone, and yet Mr. Giuliani has not received double-digit voter support (he almost got there with 9% in New Hampshire, but is still seeking that elusive "10"). So, the real question is: why is Mr. Giuliani still in this race? The answer is simple: he doesn't care about Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Carolina, or Wyoming.

Mr. Giuliani has his sights set squarely on Florida. This year, Florida's 57 delegates are up for grabs (their normal number of 114 were cut in half by the RNC for holding their primary too early), and if Mr. Giuliani can win them, he will be right back in this race. This strategy, however, is very risky, and many of the talking heads on television are questioning the logic and intelligence behind it. I, too, question his tactics.

I do not think that Mr. Giuliani has much of a chance of being the 2008 Republican presidential candidate. Others disagree with me. Obviously winning Florida would bring him back into the thick of things, but I would hope that Americans everywhere are smart enough to see that all Mr. Giuliani is doing is looking at the states with the early contests and saying, "Yeah, you guys don't matter." Wow, can you imagine having a candidate gaining the nomination after he has demonstrated publicly that he doesn't care about 12% of the country? And if he does gain the nomination, can you imagine him winning in the general election? I can't.

I have long thought that Rudy Giuliani's run for this nation's highest office is a joke. He did good things as a US Attorney and Mayor of New York City, but is so grossly unqualified for the job of President of the United States that it boggles the mind. I recently had a conservative acquaintance tell me that he may win due to his strong terrorism experience. I responded (perhaps too quickly) that he doesn't have any terrorism experience. "Except for actually having to deal with it," he quickly replied. Well, by that criteria, ever paramedic who has ever been in charge of the scene of a car accident is obviously qualified to be Secretary of Transportation. Right. I don't know why opponents don't bring this up more often, but do you know why there is so much film of Mr. Giuliani walking around NYC on September 11, 2001? Because he had the bright idea of putting his emergency command and control center in the World Trade Center, which had already been the target of a terrorist attack in 1993.

That's definitely the mind that I want in the Oval Office.