If you are at all susceptible to the politics bug, it is very hard to innoculate oneself in the middle of one of the most dizzying political seasons in recent memory.
But some things are predictable. A very, very long time ago, when former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani had launched his GOP campaign for the Presidency, it seemed that he would be invincible. I have long argued, however, that the conservative "coalition" within the Republican Party had suffered a huge crack-up, undermined by its most virulent strains (of the neo- and, especially, theo- variety).
In this context, "[i]t bordered on science fiction to think that someone as liberal on as many issues as Rudy Giuliani could become the Republican nominee," as GOP consultant Nelson Warfield observes.
With Rudy's crushing defeat in the Florida primary (and his imminent endorsement of John McCain), Giuliani's campaign is now history.
Now, let me be clear about a few things: I'm not one of those libertarians who utterly despises "Ghouliani." True, he could be an awful political opportunist (Joe Biden's statement rings true: "There's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun and a verb and 9/11"). He was petty and authoritarian, and he pissed me off a few hundred times while he was "America's Mayor." But for New Yorkers who lived through an era bookended by John Lindsay and David Dinkins, Rudy did a few things that led even the New York Times to endorse him in 1997 for a second term (so much for their inherent bias against him).
That said, his acceptance of the Bush administration's reckless policies assured that I could never cast my vote for a Giuliani presidency.
So much more 2008 political theater to come... stay tuned.
Cross-referenced at L&P.
