GIULIANI'S LEARNING CURVE.
(Photo: Rudy Giuliani (L) and Gene Hart, Greenfield, Iowa, August 15, 2007) (Photo: Rudy Giuliani (L) and Gene Hart, Greenfield, Iowa, August 15, 2007) The Atlantic's Matt says "something's amiss when Rudy Giuliani spends 6,000 words on foreign policy and doesn't mention Pakistan at all." That's not the only thing that's amiss about Giuliani's recent moves in the political arena.
After catching Giuliani yesterday at the Nodaway Diner in Greenfield -- a town in Southwestern Iowa so small it boasts about a "European-Style Square" -- and then again at the State Fair, I'm starting to think Giuliani's campaign for the presidency has basically two main planks, both of which happen to involve giving the G.O.P. base the exact answers it wants on top issues, but that it's somewhat neglectful about everything else. To begin with, Giuliani's forthright pro-wall stance on border security and illegal immigration is a threshold trust issue for voters who rank such issues as their top priorities. His multi-pronged approach on the issue begins, "First, build a fence." That's what he told State Fair goers, and that's what G.O.P. voters in the state have repeatedly told me they want someone to do. He's also pro-English, and was met with vigorous applause for saying at the fair, "We want people to come here who want to learn to read and write and speak English." And he is willing to be the exact kind of law and order hardliner such voters crave. "Anyone who is in this country from a foreign country who commits a crime should be thrown out," he said. "Throw them out." Second, Giuliani promises voters an aggressive military posture. "I believe America should be on the offense against terrorism," he said at the State Fair. "America doesn't lose. America wins. America prevails."
