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Evidently, Rudy CAN fail
By Ned | January 25, 2008
I was saving that pun for when Giuliani lost Florida, but I’m an impatient man, and my love for both the Clash and bad politics/punk rock-related puns is too great.
Anyway, I don’t think the NYT’s pointed non-endorsement of Giuliani was all that pointed or significant. The guy’s losing pretty much everywhere, and based on the polling, I’m betting New York’s going for McCain anyway. Plus, a lot of the press thinks John McCain is made of sugar and spice various other things that are nice, so it makes sense that a lot of papers that are traditionally thought of on the right as members of the international Marxist conspiracy to pick him as their endorsed candidate on the GOP side.
So the question isn’t so much “Why didn’t they endorse Giuliani?” as it is “What, if any, effect is this going to have on the race?” I doubt it’s going to effect it much, but to the extent that it does, I can’t see many of the Republican faithful going, “Wow! If a neo-Leninist propaganda rag like the New York Times endorsed McCain, he must be a strong, principled conservative!” It’s more likely that the other candidates are going to wield this as a punchline against him. Imagine Mitt Romney throwing into a stump speech a line like: “My leading opponent’s such a strong conservative that even the New York Times likes him.” And then he chuckles smarmily and, seeing minorities in the audience, mumbles something about his milkshake, and how it brings all the boys to the yard. On Hardball that night, a senior political strategist on the Romney campaign confirms that, damn right, it is indeed better than y’all’s.
Which is a roundabout way of saying that this endorsement is fantastic news for McCain.
Topics: The Media |
January 26th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
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