Whenever I talk to friends or even just people on the street about Rudy, they are always astonished that he is the national front runner. We all know he was our Mayor on September 11th, 2001, but that doesn't diminish his record and his persona to anyone that lived under his Mayoralty. He was a political brute who fired people that crossed him and made life miserable for those that got in his way.
When he started down the road of Presidential campaigning, he became a different man, I dare say even nice. Now that his "Shag Fund" is dominating much of the news since Wednesday, the Rudy that we know is about to show himself to the rest of the country. He already started with reporters yesterday. No one is going to like him after a few weeks, especially as this story continues...and his ego feels people's reactions to it.
From MSNBC:
OKATIE, SC -- Giuliani refused to take questions here today about allegations that travel expenses were picked up by obscure city offices when he was mayor of New York City.“We’ve already explained it,” he said, walking past reporters after a town hall meeting.
Giuliani, who is normally friendly to reporters, bristled past them, and campaign staffers were unusually physical in keeping the press away. Several campaign aides told campaign reporters to return to the press area, and some of his security detail manhandled reporters. On other occasions, reporters have been free to video Giuliani as he is shaking hands and signing autographs after events, and he often informally takes questions from reporters.
Manhandling reporters? That isn't the way most politicians like to deal with the press. Being nice to the media and having a chummy relationship is what usually gets reporters to write nice stories, or at least to be fair. Ignoring their questions will definitely not help either, but this isn't any ol' politician, this is Rudy Giuliani. Perhaps these national political journalists haven't seen this side of Mr. 9/11, but we already know about him all too well.
|