* Update (07/25) : Welcome, Pajamas Media readers. *
* Update: Giuliani and Dennis Prager discuss the Democrats' latest presidential debate *
Yesterday myself and some other "9/11 Neocons" attended Rudy Giuliani's appearance before 150 supporters in San Francisco. The SF Chronicle's coverage, despite the facts related, showed itself again as a rather obfuscating liberal media tool ("Giuliani, in S.F., blasts Democrats as 'defeatists'"; H/T Dave R.). Contrary to what the Chron grudgingly reported, Giuliani's address was genial, relaxed, and substantive. He peppered an at times technocratic talk on energy independence with all-American anecdotes and metaphors, striking a balance between the avuncular and the authoritative.
To start, Giuliani pulled out a card with his "12 Commitments" campaign theme printed on it. Affecting humility, he said that, not being as competent as God, he needed 12 (not 10) principles by which to govern. (He made only one other reference to God -- during his concluding statement about what a gift it is to live in America -- striking a moderate but clear tone on a vital subject.) For anyone who finds contemporary American culture "dysfunctional," this campaign theme recalls the self-reliant 12 steps of popular self-help programs. Simple and strategic.
The emphasis of Giuliani's talk was not to "blast" Democrats but to set in motion an incremental overhaul of American energy policy that does not toe the "global warming" political line and is integrated with a larger strategy to defeat totalitarian Muslims. He referred to a "tag team" of presidents, from Eisenhower through Nixon, who determined to and then delivered on their promise to put an American on the moon. He spoke in detail about the untapped possibilities of ethanol, coal, nuclear, and wind & solar energies, introducing terms like "carbon sequestration" and professing his readiness to extend federal subsidies to businesses that develop these resources. And Giuliani insisted that there can be no success without benchmarks, examples of which he suggested. This is the kind of constructive (not destructive) criticism for which during the '04 campaign I turned to the Democrats and came away largely disappointed.
Striving for Kennedyesque vision and Trumanesque humility, the ex-Democrat Giuliani appealed, first to Republicans, and -- if the MSM would permit it -- to voters of both parties to significantly alter the economic and environmental direction of the country. Just don't count on the Chron if you want to learn about this.
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Republicans are going to have to work very hard for recognition of their leadership on where environmental rubber meets the road to crushing Islamic totalitarianism. Earlier this month I attended a talk by Clint Wilder, co-author of The Clean Tech Revolution (as of today ranked #1661 on Amazon). During the Q&A I asked him to identify, in terms of his thesis, which presidential contenders were worth watching. John Edwards was the only name he put forward (without offering specifics). When phrasing my question I introduced that Newt Gingrich had a book due out soon, A Contract With The Earth. If Mr. Wilder had any knowledge of this, however, he sat on it. My guess is that this influential author is behind the curve on Republican environmental initiatives.
Another notable moment was when Giuliani insisted on the importance of calling Islamic terrorists "Islamic terrorists" -- and on calling out the Democratic contenders for ignoring our gravest reality. For this the hero of 9/11 is now being targeted, as Pamela blogs, by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. (Note the heated comments in Pamela's post, btw.) For my part, I was preparing to press Giuliani to make a similar "commitment" to set "benchmarks" regarding citizenship for immigrants -- in particular, Muslim immigrants -- but unfortunately the Q&A time ran out and my question remained unasked. This is a question that has to be put to the entire GOP field -- not just to Giuliani -- again and again until they start coming up with answers.
Certain Giuliani supporters, enthused to see Their Guy in person, prefaced their questions with, "When you're president..." or "President Giuliani...." Yet when shopping around for a presidential candidate we shouldn't look for one to come up with all the right answers, nor falsely praise one who might seem to do so. This temptation is real and ever-present. Instead what we should do is insist that our presidential candidates ask the right questions. Asking some of the right questions is what Giuliani has set out, at this still early stage of the campaign season, to do.
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From time to time my "9/11 Neocon" comrades and I checked over our shoulders in case any camouflaged Code Pinkos might pop up and pull any stunts. Turns out we weren't far off the mark: that day they were bare-breastedly besieging Hillary's brand new local headquarters.
Afterwards some of us went out for eats at The Sabra Grill, San Francisco's premier (probably only) glatt kosher downtown restaurant. Because we'd been spared the Code Pinko prank, our appetites fortunately were in good form.
