Giuliani pretends to be a foreign-policy expert

April 4, 2007

When it comes to foreign policy, former NYC Mayor [tag]Rudy Giuliani[/tag] recently told a supportive audience, “It’s something that I think I know, I think I know as well as anybody else who’s running for president, probably better than a lot.”

Yesterday, Giuliani was even more confident in his background.

Rudy Giuliani said yesterday that his days as mayor of New York’s melting pot and his globetrotting as a security consultant give him more knowledge of the world than anyone else running for President (emphasis added).

“I’ve probably been in foreign lands more than any other candidate for President in the last five to six years,” he said during a morning stop in New Hampshire. […]

Giuliani argued that his eight years as mayor as well as what he said were more than 90 foreign trips during his time as a private business consultant had taught him the ways of the world.

If Giuliani wants to argue, as other candidates have, that foreign policy experience isn’t necessarily a prerequisite for a presidential candidate, that’s fine. Barack Obama has argued, persuasively, that Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld brought more foreign policy experience to their offices than anyone in a long while — and it didn’t seem to matter.

And if Giuliani wants to argue that a lack of foreign policy experience need not be a political hindrance, that’s fine, too. In the last four presidential elections, the losing presidential candidate arguably had a more extensive background in foreign policy than the winner. Americans look for sound judgment, not necessarily on-the-job experience.

But for Giuliani to argue, with a straight face, that he has more knowledge of the world than anyone else running for president is truly ridiculous.

As Jonathan Chait recently explained, “The normal rule in American politics is that if you run for president and your experience comes at the state level, most people will assume that foreign policy is your weak point…. One would presume that this applies even more to presidential candidates whose highest office reached is mayor. And yet we have the strange case of Rudolph Giuliani … [who] has somehow built a record as a foreign policy guru despite having no experience beyond the municipal level.”

Giuliani helped lead a diverse city? That’s true, but being around people from other countries does not make one an expert in foreign policy. Giuliani has traveled to a variety of countries? That’s also true, but I have a relative who’s visited more countries than I can remember, but (with all due respect to the person I’m thinking of) this doesn’t make her a policy professional when it comes to international affairs.

Look, Joe Biden has served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for three decades. Bill Richardson was the ambassador to the United Nations and has traveled the world meeting with heads of state, resolving diplomatic crises. Chris Dodd has been a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and received the Edmund S. Muskie Distinguished Public Service Award in recognition of his leadership in foreign policy. John Edwards served on the Senate Intelligence Committee and wrote a detailed report last year on relations with Russia, while both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and traveled abroad on fact-finding missions.

Rudy Giuliani cut a few business deals with international companies and was mayor of a city with thousands of immigrants. That’s not foreign policy experience.

National Review’s Rich Lowry noted yesterday that when Giuliani responds to voters’ questions, “his answers on foreign policy and military affairs aren’t deeply informed.” Of course not.

As Anonymous Liberal put it:

If Giuliani is serious about this whole presidential thing, it might be worth his while to actually study these issues a little and get to a point where he can talk about them without always sounding like he’s trying to recall some memorized talking point. His image as the 9/11 mayor is only going to get him so far. If you put him on stage with Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama right now, he would be reduced to a stammering fool in short order.

Indeed. Misplaced arrogance is never pretty, but in a presidential candidate, it’s a recipe for disaster.

Even if you use Rudy’s measure of what constitutes experience – non-policy globetrotting trips – there is no way he has had more of those in his relatively brief time as a broker of mercenaries security consultant than Hillary Clinton did in eight years as First Lady. And since Bill wasa policy-wonkish Rhodes scholar and Hillary was for several years one of the Top 100 Lawyers (i.e. both are a lot brighter than Rudy), they likely had more compelling foreign policy discussions over breakfast than Rudy had with anyone the entire time he was mayor.

One can argue some with Edwards and Obama on this credential (although Edwards surely learned a lot just running four years ago, and Obama has a great retort for this issue), but by and large — and Richardson in particular — the Dems have much stronger foreign policy background than Rudy, Mitt, Huckabee, et al. (McCain and Gingrich may have experience, it just happens to have led them to completely wrong positions).

  • Guiliani has no public record of any major policy decisions. His experience is strictly local at the city level and the private sector. He is basically asking people to trust him, sight unseen, that his foreign policy experience is vast.

  • Don’t underestimate Giuliani’s overblown ego. He holds himself in very high regard.

  • I have to disagree. Not that he’s more experienced than Biden, et al, but that you cannot deny that a mayor of new york has many many many dealings with world leaders, UN reps, and a host of other foreign dignateries. The mayor of NYC, I would say, certainly has more foreign policy experience than all other mayors, and most governors. Again, there are certainly candidates with more FP experience, but I cannot say the mayor of NYC has none, or even close to none. The posters who say, oh he’s just a mayor, seem to know nothing about NYC.

  • I think point one is enough to sink his ass.

    He’s got experience, maybe, but who the hell cares??? He still agrees with the biggest idiot on the planet about the worst f***up ever:

    …In every speech he makes, Rudolph W. Giuliani talks about Iraq and makes clear that he sides with President Bush, endorsing the war and the deployment of 21,500 more troops…

    http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE0D9163EF937A25751C0A9619C8B63&n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FPeople%2FR%2FRomney%2C%20Mitt

    Strap his ass to Cheney, and you’ve got like a hundred years of foregin policy experience, and about 2 grams of useful intelligence.

  • Being “the Maybor of New York” does not equate with the boastful comment of “having more knowledge of the world that anyone else.”

    Knowledge of that world requires being in “that world;” not some melting-pot microcosm “burg” that’s made up of a select few, and a downtrodden many. Roo-Dee bills himself as “America’s Mayor” as well, but he’s never been so much as a dogcatcher here in Ohio—and the fat little windbag knows full well that he needs to carry Ohio to be President. That just isn’t going to happen.

    Speaking of windbags, maybe he can show up at a Macy’s parade. He’d make a good clown balloon….

  • “more than 90 foreign trips during his time as a private business consultant had taught him the ways of the world.”

    Belive me, all those business trips showed Rudy a lot about foreign countries, like who has the nicest bar service in their limos, which countries had the cheesiest wood paneling in their conference rooms and which hotels had the nicest soaps and towels. You can’t buy experience like that.

  • “Not that he’s more experienced than Biden, et al, but that you cannot deny that a mayor of new york has many many many dealings with world leaders, UN reps, and a host of other foreign dignateries.”

    What does any of this have to do with establishing and implementing foreign policy?

  • Giuliani is like a guy wearing a thong who claims to have an 18″ penis. We can’t see exactly how big his penis really is, but we can be damned sure it ain’t 18 inches.

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