2008 Woodie Awards
'Super Tuesday' important to whittling down candidates among the GOP
Richard Fogal
Issue date: 1/29/08 Section: Opinion
Tuesday, Feb. 5 is the so-called "Super Tuesday" in presidential politics, when 22 states -- among them New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Illinois and California -- will cast their ballots in primaries for president. This slate of primaries may end up deciding the nomination, and therefore, the choices Americans will have in November.
After what 70 percent of America (including me) would call a disastrous eight years by President George W. Bush, both Republicans and Democrats must choose their candidate for his successor.
I will offer up my views on both parties' candidates, but I'll start this week with the Republicans, who have a far more interesting race. In 2008, the GOP faces a call to abandon the divisive politics endorsed by Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and return to its "Reaganesque" roots of bipartisan governance. Call that sentiment "change" or "renewal," or whatever other buzz word you want, it's something that America desperately wants, and only one Republican has persuasively convinced me that he can ultimately deliver it. That candidate is Sen. John McCain.
For his part, Rudolph Giuliani was one of the most polarizing, autocratic and racially-insensitive mayors of New York City since Fernando Wood-whatever good he did for New York City was ultimately outweighed by his arrogant "L'état c'est moi" attitude. His election would combine the worst elements of the Bush Administration with Nixon's paranoia and Clinton's personal drama. Giuliani's performance on 9/11 is muddied by the fact that as mayor, he made choices, such as placing the Emergency Management HQ in 7 WTC rather than Brooklyn, which arguably made the disaster worse than it should have been.
Additionally, he has shown that he understands absolutely nothing of the foreign policy lessons learned during the past eight years. His advisers, such as the "godfather" of the failed neo-conservative foreign policy of this past decade, Norman Podhoretz, advocate an attack on Iran, an indefinite commitment to Iraq and still consider the utterly pathetic North Korea to be an existential threat.
After what 70 percent of America (including me) would call a disastrous eight years by President George W. Bush, both Republicans and Democrats must choose their candidate for his successor.
I will offer up my views on both parties' candidates, but I'll start this week with the Republicans, who have a far more interesting race. In 2008, the GOP faces a call to abandon the divisive politics endorsed by Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and return to its "Reaganesque" roots of bipartisan governance. Call that sentiment "change" or "renewal," or whatever other buzz word you want, it's something that America desperately wants, and only one Republican has persuasively convinced me that he can ultimately deliver it. That candidate is Sen. John McCain.
For his part, Rudolph Giuliani was one of the most polarizing, autocratic and racially-insensitive mayors of New York City since Fernando Wood-whatever good he did for New York City was ultimately outweighed by his arrogant "L'état c'est moi" attitude. His election would combine the worst elements of the Bush Administration with Nixon's paranoia and Clinton's personal drama. Giuliani's performance on 9/11 is muddied by the fact that as mayor, he made choices, such as placing the Emergency Management HQ in 7 WTC rather than Brooklyn, which arguably made the disaster worse than it should have been.
Additionally, he has shown that he understands absolutely nothing of the foreign policy lessons learned during the past eight years. His advisers, such as the "godfather" of the failed neo-conservative foreign policy of this past decade, Norman Podhoretz, advocate an attack on Iran, an indefinite commitment to Iraq and still consider the utterly pathetic North Korea to be an existential threat.
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