Train Wreck Politics » Rudy Giuliani

TWP Video: Hillary Clinton steals lines from Giuliani and Obama

Griffin — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:43:03 +0000

Hillary Clinton stealing Giuliani’s campaign slogan (“Tested. Ready. Now.”) and both of Obama’s signature phrases (“Fired Up, Ready to Go” and “Yes, We Can”). They shoulda never taught me how to make videos.

Giuliani spends $50 million for one delegate

Griffin — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 16:54:22 +0000

Worst campaign in American history? The LA Times sees the big picture:

Giuliani’s $50-million delegate

The failed campaign of Rudolph W. Giuliani can claim one distinction: the worst bang for the buck of any delegate winner in presidential politics history.

The former New York mayor, who dropped his Republican bid for the presidency this week, disclosed Thursday in a filing with the Federal Election Commission that he raised $58.5 million and spent $48.8 million in 2007.

With his donors’ money, Giuliani captured a single national delegate, in Nevada. At that rate, it would have taken close to $60 billion in spending to capture the 1,191 delegates needed to win the nomination.

And that’s just Giuliani. The total raised last year by all the candidates combined was close to $600 million. If this 2008 race isn’t the most compelling case ever for campaign finance reform, I don’t know what is.

Giuliani and McCain tonight on Leno

Griffin — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 18:15:04 +0000

And not a moment too soon. This writer’s strike is really killing NBC’s late night shows. It’s bad enough to have to do those shows without writers (how many times can Conan entertain us by spinning his wedding ring on the desk?), but what’s worse is the lack of guests. For the last month, the NBC News division has been filling the roles usually occupied by celebrities, which has meant riveting one-on-one interviews with Lester Holt, David Gregory, and Jim Cramer. The one saving grace is the fact that we’re in the midst of one of the heaviest campaign seasons in American history so there’s a lot of interesting stuff for the news guys to talk about. But this is definitely not a good look for NBC late night. I’m not sure how much longer they can keep it up.

As for Giuliani and McCain, they’ll be tag teaming on Leno’s couch tonight in Burbank. This along with the immensely popular Governor Schwarzenegger’s endorsement earlier today– I’d say it’s a pretty good day in California (a big winner-take-all state in Tuesday’s primary) for John McCain.

Missing the Big Picture

Griffin — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 14:39:08 +0000

In all the excitement of John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani exiting the race, I completely missed the big picture:

1. For the first time in American history, there will be a presidential nominee from a major party who is not a white male. Regardless of how you feel about Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, it’s hard not to be a little in awe at such an incredibly historic milestone for our country.

2. The long-anticipated (and long-dreaded) all-New York matchup between Clinton and Giuliani will not take place. I don’t know if America has ever dodged a bigger bullet than that. Thank you, Florida.

That seismic shift you felt in the Republican Party yesterday

Griffin — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 19:18:41 +0000

Was a collective move by the entire party away from the right, back toward the center of the political spectrum. The fact that John McCain– he of campaign finance, climate change, and immigration reform– and Mitt Romney– a blue-state, health-care-mandating, formerly pro-choice, governor– are now the party’s two frontrunners is astonishing. Ben Smith and David Kuhn at The Politico have a smart piece up now about how Rudy Giuliani’s inability to ever gain traction in the race marks the end of 9/11 politics. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it the end– McCain and Romney have told their fair share of ghost stories over the past year– but its effectiveness has without doubt been diminished. But just as notable is the party’s rejection of Mike Huckabee. Maybe it had more to do with his baffling decision to trot out Chuck Norris at every campaign stop, even well after Huckabee had gotten the media’s attention. But the fact that a former baptist minister and the staunchest pro-life “defender of marriage” in the race couldn’t win in South Carolina over John McCain shows the likewise diminished influence of the religious right.

The fact is that neither John McCain nor Mitt Romney could have won the Republican Party nomination in either 2000 or 2004 (had there been no incumbent). Regardless of which of them wins the party’s nod in 2008, Republicans will see their domestic platforms in the general election shift noticably towards the center.