POLITICS: Why Rudy Went Down
Fund, John H.
P o l I T I c s Why Rudy Went Down by John H. Fund he knows the voters of Iowa, the heartland state that was the first sign of trouble for Rudy Giuliani’s now-ended presidential...
...Giuliani staffers say he was warned over and over again that the phone calls are rude and inappropriate and have alienated everyone from local officials to top donors to close friends...
...He told David Brody of CBN News that since 9/11, when he and Mrs...
...Liam Fox, a prominent British conservative leader, was stunned to learn that several young Giuliani aides had never heard of Margaret Thatcher even as they were flying their man across the Atlantic last September to accept an award from her at a valuable photo-op...
...But in large part because of “that New York personality” which so endeared or at least intrigued the national news media, but which fell flat with ordinary voters...
...But in the end, Giuliani’s own campaigning was haphazard and listless and made reporters wonder if he was just trudging through the motions...
...Campaign staffers were appalled at the number of times their candidate felt compelled to interrupt public appearances to take calls from his wife...
...Grassley put it...
...As in life, so it is in politics—voters rebel against someone who thinks the job is theirs by right...
...their goals...
...At the Bear Stearns meeting, Giuliani took a call from his wife and then, noting the strained faces of his supporters, he sheepishly tried a joke...
...It wasn’t just his campaign’s monumentally shortsighted decision to abandon the early primary states and wait for the Florida primary—in the meantime seeing their man drop off the media radar screen...
...In his 2002 book Leadership, Giuliani wrote that a “leader must manage not only results but expectations...
...Just look at all the trouble Hillary Clinton is having with the Demo cratic nomination...
...M a R c H 2 0 0 8 T H e a M e R I c a n s P e c T a T o R 5 9...
...In the end, Rudy Giuliani, the scourge of the liberal entitlement mentality during his years as New York mayor, fell victim to his own sense of entitlement—that the nomination was his for the asking, that he didn’t have to work that hard for it, and that he could afford to skip early primaries...
...Giuliani get on a plane, “most of the time… we talk to each other and just reaffirm the fact that we love each other...
...I first glimpsed the problems of Team Rudy a year ago at the February 2007 Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington...
...And in trying to explain his odd behavior, Giuliani only dug himself in deeper...
...Grassley thinks the Rudy campaign collapsed Senator ChuCk Grassley isn’t sophistiCated...
...It seemed like the more people got acquainted with him, the less they liked him.… Things you do in New York don’t stay in New York” was how the laconic Mr...
...But that was hardly possible...
...Pollster Peter Brown of Quinni piac University concluded that the Giuliani campaign “was built on the assumption that it could do it their way.… It’s tough to tout yourself as the most electable Repub lican when week after week you’re getting beat by Ron Paul...
...Remember the cell phone incident, in which Giuliani was captured on tape taking a call from his wife during an important speech to the National Rifle Association...
...Giuliani was in the room— surrounded by several other journalists—and my way was barred by one of his aides, who brusquely told me: “The mayor is about to speak...
...Mollifying Judith is at the top of the to-do list for far too many people on the campaign,” another person close to Giuliani told me...
...I promptly left and hiked across the street to an open drug store where I could buy more medicine...
...It wasn’t the first such incident...
...But Mr...
...He admitted he had taken calls from his wife “before in engagements, and I didn’t realize it would create any kind of controversy...
...I was at CPAC both as a reporter and as a speaker...
...Wearing my speaker’s pass, I returned to retrieve it...
...But that is precisely what he often didn’t do, as witnessed by the embarrassing indictment of his former police commissioner Bernard Kerik midway through his campaign...
...The mayor’s speech went well, but the head table was not left with a favorable impression of his wife Judith, who declined to answer questions posed to 5 8 T H e a M e R I c a n s P e c T a T o R M a R c H 2 0 0 8 j o H n H . f u n d her while she was seated there and in general acted as if she had no use for the “little people” in her midst...
...While that was a rare example of Rudy the Tough Guy seeking sympathy and understanding from an audience, it was far more common for him and his staffers to run roughshod over people who warned them to change course...
...If it’s a stunt, it’s not one coming from him,” said a Giuliani staffer...
...But his staff created sheer hell for the conference organizers, rousting them from bed at three in the morning for a “walk through” of an empty conference room where the mayor was to speak the next day...
...It’s an ongoing problem that he won’t take advice on...
...I was told of many other incidents, from a California fundraiser to a Florida speech to a gathering with top donors at Bear Stearns in New York...
...The estimate from those in a position to know was that before the NRA interruption he had taken more than 40 such calls in the middle of speeches, conferences, and presentations to large donors...
...Get out...
...I can’t afford to lose another one...
...It wasn’t just that he was a twice-divorced, pro-choice, anti-gun, pro-gay-rights moderate who was estranged from his own children and couldn’t seem to find a rationale for his candidacy beyond the hero status he won on 9/11...
...Finally, the Giuliani tome advised leaders to “prepare relentlessly” to achieve Giuliani’s own campaigning was haphazard and listless and made reporters wonder if he was just trudging through the motions...
...john H. fund, The American Spectator’s Politics columnist, is author of Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens Our Democracy (Encounter Books...
...Ill with a cold, I had forgotten my cough medicine in the green room...
...But it wasn’t just the fact that Giuliani had an operatic personal life...
...The New York lifestyle hasn’t gone over [in] some places...
...In his book Giuliani urged budding leaders to “surround themselves with great people...
...But Rudy could never live up to his own bragging that he was the only candidate who could save the country from Hillary Clinton...
...But at least a White House staff is usually well briefed...
...I’ve been married three times,” he explained...
...As such, I had ready access to the green room where speakers would wait before appearing on stage...
...Indeed, a top Giuliani adviser bluntly told me that Judith Giuliani ended up creating “a large part” of the problems encountered by the campaign...
...Iviolate all of the majo o t d e a m n G i m a C roni p C a ally , the n G ag iulian r i principles that the former mayor himself had outlined as essential to run an organization...
...Sadly, I found that behavior typical of Team Giuliani...
...The Giuliani campaign was a study in sheer arrogance, run by a group of insular Rudy yes men— the only prominent female adviser was his wife Judith—who had never run a national campaign...
...P o l I T I c s Why Rudy Went Down by John H. Fund he knows the voters of Iowa, the heartland state that was the first sign of trouble for Rudy Giuliani’s now-ended presidential candidacy...
...A few weeks after the CPAC incident, I was at a conference of distinguished conservatives who were looking forward to hearing the former New York mayor outline his policies...
...I’m sure you understand...
...The staff was “terrified” of her, he told me...
...They seemed to have no understanding that a presidential campaign can’t behave with the brusqueness of a White House staff...
Vol. 41 • March 2008 • No. 2
