Rudy, you loser
I used to live in New York, the city, I mean. Actually, I was born there, the Bronx to be exact, which explains, I hope, the nature of my baseball loyalties. That means I'm not a Red Sox fan.
I also spent 14 years living in Brooklyn, after I left college, so between all of that I qualify as a "New Yawker" and I'm proud of it. Not always, but most of the time, I thrilled to the beat and buzz of the big city, and while time has taken its toll, I still enjoy going back for the occasional visit and marveling at how so much has changed. And for the better. The city is cleaner. The subways are cleaner. For someone who remembers the subways of the 1970s and 80s, it's astonishing how much better it all looks now.
A good part of that change is attributable, I think, to the mayoralty of Rudy Guiliani, whose tenure I unfortunately missed while a resident of the Big Apple. I left midway during the late and lamentable one term of David Dinkins, who was truly bad at the job.
This is a rambling way of establishing my bona fides for commenting on the Presidential aspirations of the same Mr. Guiliani, who committed one of those extraordinary political faux pas last week that leave the ordinary person gasping in astonishment at how stupid supposedly intelligent people can be. Maybe our extended presidential campaigns are overlong for a reason. They do have a way of revealing insights that you'd never expect.
About a week ago, I read in the New York Post that hizzoner was rooting for the Red Sox in the World Series, which of course as we now know they won. As anyone who knows anything about Sir Rudy knows, the rest of the time he has cloaked himself in Yankee fandom. He gets the prime seats between home plate and the Yankee dugout for all the big games. He got to ride up Broadway during all those ticker tape parades in the glory years of the late 1990s. So the concept of Rudy rooting for the Sox was a little like Arnold Schwartzenegger telling us he was going in for a sex change.
But the Post is the Post - it's really more for entertainment than the news. It's a fun paper to read and it was the perfect way to pass the time commuting to work on the subway. But let's just say it's got a slight credibility problem. So when they ran a picture of Rudy titled "Rudy - Red coat" - or "Red Goat" - I can't remember now - I immediately thought this was another fun way the Post was laying a goof on the rest of us. No way, Jose, could the Rudster be that dumb, opportunistic, or both.
Well, turns out he was. Last Sunday's New York Times, a real newspaper, ran an article confirming that indeed, Rudy was an American League fan to the core, even if that meant rooting for the hated and reviled Red Sox. Whoa, dude.
Did Rudy think his turncoat display was going to win him votes in Massachusetts or perhaps more critically in New Hampshre, with its upcoming primary now less than three months away (thank God). Does he think voters there are that stupid? It would seem that they could see through this ruse as well as the next person. There would seem to be more votes to be gained by going with Colorado, a state teetering between the GOP and the Democrats, where a tilt towards the Rockies could be critical in a tight race. But when is the Colorado primary? Is there one? Who cares, when the pundits univrsally inform us that the selection process for president through the primary system will be over by mid-February, well before, I believe, Coloradans get a chance to vote.
Now we need to find out who Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, but with Michigan roots, but who is also a Yankee fan, went with during the World Series. My mind has to stretch very far to comprehend how any true Yankee fan could ever possibly support the Red Sox for anything except the village dogcatchers.
So Rudy - will you do anything for a vote? And how can i possibly vote for you now, even if i wanted to, which I really didn't. Despite his pro-abortion stance, there's too much flip-flopping in Rudy's portfolio lately to make me happy. Let's think about the National Rifle Association, or the NRA. When he was mayor, he was all about gun control. Now that he's running for president, well- hey, let's not upset those right-wing fundamentallists who call the shots in the Republican primaries.
It's another story, but sometime I want to weigh in on how despite Rudy's great record as Mayor of New York -notwithstanding despite several blemishes during the end especially when he wanted to delay the election of his successor because of the 9/11 hangover - wow - then the terrorists really would have won - he has to start thinking in what Thomas Friedman, possibly America's greatest living news columnist today calls a 9/12 world. Every other word out of Rudy's mouth seems to be some variant of 9/11. Enough already. What conclusions did you draw from it? And where do we go now?
The sad part is that Rudy did a pretty good job as the mayor of New York, especially during his first term. He got the police department straightened out (well, with the help of his police chief Michael Bratton, whom he later fired because he, Bratton, was getting too much credit for that) - cleaned up the streets and generally showed us thaat New York was not ungovernable. Thatwas a real question when he took over.
His second term was far more mixed. He got into a silly spat with the Brooklyn Museum over a piece of art he found offensive, and revealed himself to have a real freedom of speech blind spot. His focus began to waver and he picked some unfortunate fights with minority groups over policing issues. In fact, had it not been for 9/11, Rudy might very well have left office with no real future, a mayor who started off strong but then wilted, and he certainly wouldn't be running for president today and be leading in the Republican polls.
9/11 changed all that, and Rudy became for a few weeks the face of resilient America against the terrorist criminals who masterminded and carried out the murderous, cowardly attacks. But then he got carried away with it and thought he was indispensable, hence the ill-thought out idea to postpone the election that eventually brough Michael Bloomberg into office. Bad move, very bad move.
But back to baseball.
Rudy, are you just as shameless a political opportunist as the woman you most profess to dislike - Hillary Clinton. Now there is a major league opportunist. She's also a Cubs fan - remember when you trashed her for that? What's not to love about the Cubs?
Shame on you Rudy. Any small chance you might have gotten my vote has evaporated faster than a Joba Chamberlain fastball.