http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2007/may/29/the_politico_claims_rudy_has_national_security_statureThe Politico Claims Rudy Has "National Security Stature," Compares Him To Eisenhower
By Greg Sargent | bio
Today's lead story in The Politico claims that social conservatives are supporting Rudy Giuliani despite his views on abortion and gay rights, offering the following astonishing explanation for this:
Giuliani has tried to appeal to social conservatives, embracing their agenda by pledging to appoint "strict constructionists" to the Supreme Court, using Justices John G. Roberts Jr. and Samuel A. Alito Jr. as examples. Conservatives expect "strict constructionists" to determine that the Constitution does not mandate abortion rights.
But, like Dwight Eisenhower's in 1952, Giuliani's national security stature after the Sept. 11 attacks more likely explains his continued popularity within the religious right, whose voters have long held hawkish positions on the issue.So we're now writing that Rudy outright has "national security stature?"
In the real world, of course, Rudy doesn't have national security stature at all. He was a mob-busting U.S. Attorney, ran New York as mayor for two terms, walked through the smoke and dust on 9/11, then did a bit of globe-trotting as part of his post-mayoralty moneymaking efforts. Rudy has no national security experience of any kind -- let alone "stature" in this field.
By contrast, Dwight Eisenhower -- with whom Rudy is astonishingly compared here -- had served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, as well as becoming the first supreme commander of NATO, before becoming President.
What Rudy does have is an aura of national security experience -- that is, the appearance of having it, or something like it, anyway -- based on the fact that he happened to be Mayor of New York on 9/11. One gains "stature" in a given field when they have actual experience in it. Even if you agree that Rudy's post 9/11 leadership was admirable, it simply doesn't constitute an achievement in the field of national security. Rudy's aura of national security experience is a media creation, nothing more, helped along by silly passages like this one in The Politico.
We wouldn't be stamping our feet about this if it didn't make a larger point with far-reaching implications for the Presidential race: If the media, and Rudy's political rivals, cede Rudy the aura of national security experience based on nothing other than his performance on 9/11, he stands a much better chance of becoming President. Descriptions of the candidates matter.