Political Earthquakes occurred yesterday from New York to Alabama.
For those covering every aching moment in the health care discussion, I am not C-Span. Yes, the issue is incredibly relevant. However, until an actual bill either passes or fails, nothing has changed. Yes, I want to stop the current bills dead in their tracks, but people on both sides need to realize that as of now, absolutely nothing has happened. If I covered everything that may or may not almost happen, again, I would be C-Span.
No actual news has occurred out of Washington, DC.
However, New York and Alabama did have major announcements.
In New York, Rudy Giuliani announced that he is not running for any political office in New York in 2010. This is good and bad.
The good news is that Rudy is not running for the U.S. Senate. The job is beneath him. He is not a gasbag with nothing better to do than make speeches. He is a leader. He is an executive. Being one of one hundred is not what makes him work best. It is also a step down. You don’t run for president and then run for the Senate unless you are already there, or unless there is no hope for further advancement. Elizabeth Dole did this because her career was done. Jerry Brown seemed to take a step down from presidential candidate to Mayor of Oakland, but that is still an executive position, which helped immensely in his quest to try and get back to the governor’s mansion. While only Rudy knows if he will run for president again, being a Senator is not his path to get there.
The bad news is that Rudy Giuliani is not running for governor of New York. The climate is perfect. Republicans are heavily favored for a 2010 landslide, and David Patterson might be the most vulnerable governor in the country. Rudy could be governor in 2010, get reelected in 2014, and then run for President in 2016. I do not see Rudy running for President in 2012, but in 2016, if Obama gets reelected, Rudy would absolutely be a viable choice. The only person that could have stopped Rudy was John McCain, and that will not be an issue any more.
Instead Rudy decided to do what he did almost a decade earlier, bow out and endorse Rick Lazio. I have nothing against Rick Lazio, but the guy is not exactly inspiring. This is a gubernatorial election gift wrapped for Republicans, and the perception of Lazio is that he is too nice a guy to win.
So what is Rudy going to be doing?
His security firm will be providing security to Rio De Janeiro for the 2016 Olympics.
This makes sense for several reasons, even if I do not like it.
For one, New York is a mess. Rudy has a golden reputation more golden than the Rudy who played at Notre Dame. We know what has happened to Notre Dame since. By not risking failure, Rudy keeps alive his earned image of success at the city level. If anyone can turn around New York State, he can, but maybe even the man who saved Gotham City is overmatched on this one.
Another reason is that maybe he just does not want the job. Rudy loves a good battle, but Albany Democrats make Manhattan Democrats seem almost reasonable. If Rudy cannot get tax cuts through, his agenda would be stalled. Rudy only likes to do a job if he can be effective. New York might be too dysfunctional for him.
Another reason is that he will make a truckload of money as a private citizen. His consulting firm is going to earn him fabulous wealth. Sarah Palin is earning wealth on her book tour, but Rudy’s book has been out several years now. The speaking circuit is always there, but Rudy is a security guy through and through. Unlike Al Gore, Rudy will earn his money by offering real knowledge rather than discredited idiocy and fraud.
(I throw in lines like that so that liberals can go apespit blathering about what they think I meant, despite that I left the line deliberately vague. Now they can go vent without knowing exactly what I meant. Al Gore is a fraud though, while Rudy has actual accomplishments.)
As the world gets closer to 2016, clips of Rudy handling in business with Rio De Janeiro will be contrasted with Barack Obama, who failed to get the Olympics for Chicago. Make no mistake about it, the media will find a story in anything and this can be made into something. If Rudy can do all of his consulting work by 2014, and turn over the business to his successor, he will be fine.
This matters to me because Rudy Giuliani should be president. America needs leadership, and Rudy Giuliani is one of the all time great leaders. The Mullahs in Iran hate him with a ferocity matched only by how little they are concerned with the current White House occupant.
While Rudy was making his announcement in New York, another major political announcement was made in Alabama.
While congressional liberals in the least transparent administration in history are trying to pass a bad bill in the dead of night or morning as we approach Christmas, one Alabama congressman has had enough.
Democrat Parker Griffith has decided to switch parties and become a Republican.
Now in the liberal media world where they wear Eau D’Obama Anus perfume, liberals are always principled while Republicans are evil and calculating. Liberals are bipartisan while conservatives are divisive. So naturally there must be sinister motives for this switch that would not be covered ad nauseum had a Republican tried to become a Democrat. Republicans who move left are referred to as “growing.”
Sure it is highly possible that Mr. Griffith saw the handwriting on the wall for 2010 and is engaging in a desperate move to save his job. That would not make him any more gutless than any other member of congress.
Yet it is also highly possible that this man has become so disgusted with what his party has become under the current leadership that he felt that Republicans better represent Alabama values.
(This is where leftist elitist snobs take a break from sniffing their own backsides to make a harsh remark about trailer parks and Walmarts.)
Mr. Griffith sees what is happening to Ben Nelson in Nebraska. He sees the corruption, and refuses to bow down before the leftist kings. For those who think that Obama or the Pelosiraptor care one bit if some politicians in despised “Middle America,” lose their jobs, they care even less than the currently unemployed people all over this country. Otherwise they would not be focusing on health care to begin with until the economy recovers.
Mr. Griffith does not like the direction this country is going, and he decided to take a stand. The smear campaign against him will begin because unlike the “principled” Arlen Specter, Mr. Griffith went the wrong way. Others may follow.
So while Nebraska and Louisiana conduct “business as usual,” one Republican in New York and one new Republican in Alabama looked deep inside themselves and did what they thought was right.
eric
The way things are going… by the time 2012 comes around the country will have some serious cravings for some decent conservatie leadership.
Amongst everything else going down I dont think people are going to be too happy after three years of being taxed for something they cant have til after we know who wins the next election. The salt on the wound is that if we do end up with a republican president I have a good feeling he will go to work right away dismanteling the healthcare bill before it gets its chance to take off. People are beginning to question whether or not all this will of been for nothing and what about the billions the dems collected in those last 3 years. Are we getting it back if the right eliminates what the left spent all that time procuring ? Will the right be idiots about it and try to use it for something else instead of telling the country were giving it all back ?
The next election will be a piece of cake for the right as long as they start taking notes on all the crap weve had to witness in the last 3 years and no doubt will witness in the remaining ones.
And I would love to see Rudy plant himself right up front as the prime candidate for president in 2012.
“The good news is that Rudy is not running for the U.S. Senate. The job is beneath him. He is not a gasbag with nothing better to do than make speeches.”
Personally, I’m not a big fan of the senate, either. It not representative of the people. It is an contrived body representing “states,” arbitrarily drawn areas on a map. You’d think, though, that a Republican would adore the senate! It is heavily disbalanced with useless “conservative” gasbags from states that have more cows than people. The forty GOP senators repesent only a third of the population. So it appears the senate favors the GOP. It also appears the GOP senators represent a disproportionate percentage of America’s cows.
“I have nothing against Rick Lazio, but the guy is not exactly inspiring.”
LOL! I won’t even get into what I really think of Rick Lazio. Suffice to say, if I was Bill Clinton, I’d have punched Lazio’s lights out back in 2000.
I’m not sure what’s going on with Giuliani. He may run for president again in ’12, but he’ll be getting on in years by then. It depends on what the GOP does. If it continues to flag Right, there won’t be a place for him. I think it will continue to flag Right. Giuliani will never be president of the United States. In the end, no matter how much our good host refuses to acknowledge this fact, the GOP is a White Protestant Southern party, chock full of bigots. The base will never nominate Giuliani for president.
As for Griffith… who cares? He’ll probably lose his next primary anyway.
JMJ