On Leadership

Good to know. Rudy Giuliani says he doesn't need an Iraq policy because "that’s in the hands of other people." This as part of his response to the question of why he didn't include anything about Iraq in his "twelve commitments." Greg Sargent correctly wonders if the media really intends "to let Rudy skate by with such answers?"

The answer is: probably! Giuliani has, for example, tended to get a free pass on his effort to position himself as an immigration restrictionist. He's achieved that positioning by opposing the immigration compromise and saying his opposition is grounded in the fact that its ID measures are insufficiently stringent. Be that as it may, when he was mayor of New York City he went as far as legally possible to create a citywide amnesty zone and even went to court to push the legal boundaries further. The press, however, doesn't seem to care about this.

And, of course, for years now they've been pushing the idea that Giuliani has credibility on national security issues even though he has no experience with foreign policy or military issues. So from his perspective, why shouldn't he get away with not having answers to Iraq questions.