{"id":10044,"date":"2007-02-26T16:30:04","date_gmt":"2007-02-26T21:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/10044.html"},"modified":"2007-02-26T16:30:04","modified_gmt":"2007-02-26T21:30:04","slug":"president-of-911-strikes-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/president-of-911-strikes-again\/","title":{"rendered":"President of 9\/11 strikes again"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a terrific cover story<\/a> in the new issue of New York magazine on Rudy Giuliani, but like Michael Crowley<\/a>, I thought this anecdote stood out. From a recent campaign event in New Hampshire:<\/p>\n

Up on the dais, it’s Rudy’s turn to raise the subject of the terror attacks. September 11 is proving to be a versatile tool. In Delaware, he used it to invoke heroism. Here, it’s all about scaring the bejesus out of country folk. Someone asks him what his management style would be as president if there was another Katrina or terrorist attack.<\/p>\n

The secret is to be prepared for anything, Rudy says. Terrorism can happen in New York or Boston or in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, “one of the smallest towns in the United States.”<\/p>\n

The punchy good cheer of this small town is replaced with grave attention. Rudy notes that he once spoke to the Shanksville high-school graduating class. “But for the grace of God and the bravery of the people who brought that plane down,” he says, “those kids wouldn’t be with us.”<\/p>\n

Tonight’s attendees, of course, have a far greater chance of being killed on an icy road on the way home tonight than via a plane falling out of the sky. But those are facts; Giuliani is playing on emotion and fear.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is utterly shameless. Those kids at Shanksville High would have been killed on 9\/11? How’s that exactly? To hear Giuliani tell it, United Flight 93 was headed, not for Capitol Hill or the White House, but for a small public school in southwest Pennsylvania. This doesn’t make any sense.<\/p>\n

I get the distinct impression that Giuliani believes he can say literally anything about the terrorist attacks, and they should be accepted as fact, because he’s Rudy Giuliani: president of 9\/11.
\n
\nThe Onion, a satirical publication, captured this perfectly<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

At a well-attended rally in front of his new Ground Zero headquarters Monday, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani officially announced his plan to run for president of 9\/11.<\/p>\n

“My fellow citizens of 9\/11, today I will make you a promise,” said Giuliani during his 18-minute announcement speech in front of a charred and torn American flag. “As president of 9\/11, I will usher in a bold new 9\/11 for all.”<\/p>\n

If elected, Giuliani would inherit the duties of current 9\/11 President George W. Bush, including making grim facial expressions, seeing the world’s conflicts in terms of good and evil, and carrying a bullhorn at all state functions.<\/p>\n

“Let us all remember how we felt on that day, with the world watching our every move, waiting on our every word,” said Giuliani, flanked by several firefighters, ex-New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, and Judith Nathan, his third wife. “With a campaign built on traditional 9\/11 values, and with the help of every citizen who believes in the 9\/11 dream, I want to make 9\/11 great again.” […]<\/p>\n

“Letting 9\/11 fall into the hands of the Democrats in 2008 would be nothing short of a national tragedy,” Giuliani said. “Ever since 9\/11 was founded that fateful day on 9\/11, 9\/11 has stood for one thing: 9\/11.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Onion posted a graphic with his candidate bio that includes three central points:<\/p>\n

* Was near World Trade Center when Twin Towers collapsed on 9\/11<\/p>\n

* Made numerous appearances on radio and television on 9\/11<\/p>\n

* Took credit for uniting city on 9\/11<\/p>\n

It was published in jest, but given what we’ve seen to date, I actually wouldn’t be surprised if the actual Giuliani campaign materials looked awfully similar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a terrific cover story in the new issue of New York magazine on Rudy Giuliani, but like Michael Crowley, I thought this anecdote stood out. From a recent campaign event in New Hampshire: Up on the dais, it’s Rudy’s turn to raise the subject of the terror attacks. September 11 is proving to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10044\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}