On Larry Kudlow's show tonight, Giuliani remarked that
It's not a day that goes by that I do not think about the events of 9/11.
Do we really want four more years of "We must not forget the lessons of 9/11"? I'm hazarding that both Giuliani and Bush share the same tidbit of remorse or guilt about 9/11 and whether they could have done more to prevent, mitigate or deal with it. This inheritance, along with the rest of the trauma of that day, probably leads them to think in terms of maximalist policy positions. As AS is pointing out today, the government has spread is wings on political violence, with the NYPD, not the FBI, fanning coverts out to keep watch on potential politicos-gone-wild.
Showing his weakness on National Security issues, Giuliani went on to remark in relation to the House vote to end a combat role by Fall, 2008:
(paraphrase) ... in the long history of warfare, I don't think that providing your enemies with your time table for withdrawal will have proved a winning move.
Which is fine, in itself, but it is Bush-Cheney all over again, a one-dimensional analysis. With that in hand, don't you think that Giuliani would have been just about the same as Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld in quite robustly failing to keep domestic support for Op Iraqi Freedom (or any conflict)?
In fact, coupled with most analysts' observations about the closeness of Giuliani's inner circle, one could imagine a simple replay of the past four years, under his style of leadership and view of events.
These early interviews are important, because they are naked and not market tested quite so much.
