Goodbye Rudy, Tuesday

Timothy Egan
Outposts
The New York Times
January 23, 2008

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Flailing around Florida, Rudolph Giuliani is getting different results, just not the ones he wants. Call him a lot a things – weird, imperious, self-aggrandizing – but crazy he is not, at least by Einstein’s notion.

For 50 days, Giuliani has had the Sunshine State nearly to himself. In advance of the presidential primary on Jan. 29, he’s sucked up to the Cuban vote in Miami, pandered in Cape Canaveral about the space program, tried to scare retirees over early-bird specials in South Florida.

There he is riding in a fire truck in a Miami parade, trailed by angry firefighters who blame him for multiple failures when New York was attacked. There he is in the Panhandle, the consummate Yankees fan trying to look down-home on the Redneck Riviera. And every night, his campaign phone bank reaches out to the diaspora of 1.5 million transplanted New Yorkers. Start spreading the news – quick! ... ( more )

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