My friends, the real Rudy is finally starting to get out, the information has even made it across the pond to the United Kingdom. Michael Tomasky writes for the Guardian and nailed Giuliani in spectacular form, he is....George Bush with brains.
From The Guardian:
People of Britain: congratulations are in order. You have now joined ferret owners, sidewalk artists, hot dog vendors, publicly funded attorneys for poor people, low-income community college students, museum curators, a couple of innocent black men shot dead by the police, the sections of the New York City charter governing rules of succession to the mayoralty and, of course, Hillary Clinton, as objects of Rudy Giuliani's demagoguery and wrath.You may by now have heard the story. In a radio ad that his campaign prepared for New Hampshire voters, Giuliani tells listeners that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2000 and goes on to say: "My chance of surviving cancer - and thank God I was cured of it - in the United States: 82%. My chances of surviving prostate cancer in England: only 44% under socialised medicine."
The numbers are false. The actual five-year survival rate in Britain is 74%, which is still lower than America's, but obviously high enough for the figure not to have constituted fodder for a campaign commercial. (Even the remaining, much smaller difference, is largely explained by more widespread screening in the US, which catches many more incidents of prostate cancer that are non-lethal).
Yet when Rudy's campaign was confronted with the truth behind his false numbers, he stubbornly continued the charade. Much like Bush Jr, his refusal to give ground in light of facts is astonishing. He has also had lots of practice being Mayor here for eight goddamn years.
So he sticks to the 44% even though it is really 74% and despite being called out for relying on "socialized medicine" here with NYC's health care plan, he staggers on with the ego that fights to be bigger than New York itself.
Yes Mr.Tomasky, Britain does have to take heed of this dangerous man. He is George Bush with brains and it scares the hell out of many of us back here on this side of the pond. As a New Yorker I've known only too well.
|