Why do you think that Rudy Giuliani is leading early polls both for nomination and GE?

[WI_DEM]

Just curious what your take on this is.

[NYCGirl]

1. 9/11! 9/11! 9/11! 9/11! 9/11! 9/11! 9/11! 9/11! 9/11! And furthermore...

9/11!

[WI_DEM]

6. So after almost six years it's still that potent politically even after Bush

has squeezed it for all it's worth.

[NYCGirl]

10. With the GOP, it is. Do you really think Giuliani has anything else going for him?

[WI_DEM]

14. that must be it. They see him as "America's Mayor" and a strong leader.

[NYCGirl]

16. And we New Yorkers recognize him as a mediocre to bad mayor.

Bloomberg is much more popular.

[Cosmocat]

26. Bingo ... These freaks have ...

an absolutely perverse worship of 9-11, and being the mayor he in their eyes was basically touched by the hand of god on 9-11, the way, of course, only a republican can ...

Also ... While not as completely devoid of intelligence and management skills like the current occupant of 1600 PA, this guy like the current disater, needs to be "managed" to keep the public from know what he is really like ...

Something about that lie, like covering for Reagan being mentally incompacitated, that appeals in some bizarre way to these people, too ...

[no_hypocrisy]

2. No one knows the "real" Rudy Giuliani, and they DON'T want to know.

They want a hero, real or not. They want an illusion, not a reality. Same pattern exhibited that got * into office . . .

[Individualist]

5. Correct

As far as votes are concerned, people's perception of Giuliani is what counts, not what he really is.

[WI_DEM]

9. It's scary because I've seen polls of Rudy beating all dems in states like NJ and PA

and if we can't win those states we're screwed.

[no_hypocrisy]

13. NJ knows all about him from watching the tri-state papers and radio

and TV. But they wish he were THEIR mayor, not necessarily president. (NJ has a love/hate relationship with its mayors and their limits of locality. They wish their mayors would jump on their feet like Giuliani and lower crime, scare the bad guys, and clean up the streets so to speak.)

[WI_DEM]

15. the latest Quinnipiac poll gives Rudy a 50-41 point lead in NJ over Hillary and 50-39 over Obama.

[no_hypocrisy]

21. Maybe when you boil it all down, America really loves a bully.

I guess it went with Clinton because there was a dearth of bullies in 1992 (Bush was a wimp and Clinton was a Lothario.)

[mdmc]

22. I think that the polls show that USA does not want to anoint another pResident

:shrug:

I can't see Ghouliani beating HRC, but that seems to be the story in red upstate NY.

[underpants]

24. He is completely under the radar so far

He, smartly, isn't coming out until he has to.

[Raven]

3. I think the fundies think he's a mean sob

who is hiding his real proclivities and who will "kick ass" (yours and mine!) when he gets into office.

[n2doc]

4. Because no one is really paying attention

Next year, when the primaries get close, I predict we will see "America's Mayor"tm fade under the kleig lights.

Right now it is all about "oh, I sort of remember him, wasn't he some kind of hero during 9/11?" name rec and not much else.

[Faux pas]

7. In addition to "9/11-9/11" I think they love the idea of another

powerless, brainless puppet. Go figure.

[krispos42]

8. They don't know he married his cousin

Hell, my mom, born and raised in Brooklyn, living in a Connecticut suburb, and a Democrat, didn't now this. And she laughed her ass off when I told her about it yesterday.

Oh, and about Rudy living with a gay couple for the better part of a year. That made her laugh even harder.

I told her about the emergency command bunker debacle, too.

[ComerPerro]

11. name recognition, false image as a hero of 9/11, no real widespread negative news about him

[panader0]

12. That rudy leads the polls only points to the dearth of repub candidates

[Captain Hilts]

17. Name recognition, but they don't really know him. nt

[valerief]

18. America is ready for a drag queen president? nt

[mdmc]

19. President of 9-11

He has a shot of beating HRC

[Bob3]

20. oddly enough - nostalgia

back in the immediate aftermath of 9-11 there was, in addition to the shock and the sorrow, for a brief fleeting moment a sense of unity and purpose. The * administration decided to use that to push it's own narrow agenda but that doesn't mean it didn't really exist. Now, with Iraq a cluster**k of historical proportions, our reputation trashed, the country divided as never before, the government broke and * revealed not a Prince Hal of Henry the V but as Ethelred the Unready lurching from disaster to disaster always the last to know, Rudy symbolizes those days before * shit in the nest.

It may last - hell nostalgia elected Reagan - but Rudy's too spiteful, angry and bitter a man to really bring the warm fuzzies.

[Mojambo]

23. Because Americans are largely sniveling cowards who think he can protect them. n/t

[HockeyMom]

25. Quinnipiac Poll - Rudy loses New York to

BOTH Hillary and Obama by double digits. I guess New York must have forgotten 9/11. :sarcasm:

[Timmy5835]

27. Once the campaign starts.........

Bye bye Rudi.

[Hawaii Hiker]

28. He's leading because he is FOOLING people into

believing that he's a social moderate...Ok, if he WAS a social moderate that'd be fine, but he has said he prefers justices that are "Strict constructionists"...We all know that is just a code word conservatives use to basically mean far-right justices that are anti-abortion, anti-First Amendment, & hell, anti-ANYTHING that is not related to the 2nd. Amendment....

So how the hell can he proclaim to be for abortion rights & subsequently want to appoint justices like Scalia & Thomas on the bench?????....

I hope groups like Moveon.org, etc. run ads that go after Rudy really hard on this, because I don't believe for one minute that he's a social moderate.....