Neo-Giuliani

Michael Hirsch writes for Newsweek about the ways Rudy Giuliani has put together a team of advisors that makes him look like a dangerous lunatic. His behavior while in City Hall was kind of lovably wacky, but it also suggested the temperament of a lunatic who, in the White House, would be dangerous, so bringing a "dangerous lunatic" policy team on board is not comforting. And this is dangerous lunatic by contemporary Republican standards so be afraid. And there are structural factors in play -- it's not clear that Rudy can afford to be less than insane:

He also knows, however, that painting the War on Terror as a broad moral crusade—the basic neocon approach—is probably the only way he can win over a conservative Republican base that doesn't like his squishiness on values issues like abortion or his marriages. Giuliani has succeeded by casting the War on Terror as the "defense of Western civilization, and for many [conservative] voters that is a moral issue" that may be as important as abortion, says Gary Bauer of American Values, an advocacy group that promotes traditional marriage and pro-life views, among other conservative issues.

On top of that, Giuliani cut his teeth in New York City politics (obviously) where what passes for foreign policy is picking fights with UN officials over parking fines.

Photo by VictoryNH used under a Creative Commons license