The Candidates
Ryan Sager of the New York Sun, who has been a strong and sympathetic pro-Giuliani media voice, questions the preparation of the Mayor for his visit to Florida last month in being inevitably pressed for his position on the?Terri Schiavo case.
April 11th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
The money quote:
I am starting to detect a theme here.
April 11th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
I wouldn’t get too excited. This article appears in the NY Sun which is antt- Rudy.
April 11th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
slow news day… what a non story
April 11th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
lets see….abortions, gun control, gay civil unions, now Terri Schiavo….what else can we blame one man for??
April 11th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
It seems like another week has gone by where Rudy has NOT hired Kavon and DaveG as consultants.
April 11th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
If Rudy really meant what he said, that he agrees with what the government did to try and keep her alive, good for him, I agree with him. Interesting that he takes the opposing view of Romney, who says there should have been no efforts by the government to save the starving woman’s life.
April 11th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
This is what Rudy said about Schaivo in its entirety:
Can anyone honestly say that they have never “umm’ed” or “ahh’ed” while trying to form a thought when asked a question? Good grief!
April 11th, 2007 at 4:26 pm
The thing is, for all of the 2008 candidates, there’s really no good answer to this question. This was one of those situations that created a great deal of intra-party and intra-movement conflict, and no matter what Rudy had said, *somebody* would be ticked off. A nuanced answer that tried to please everybody would probably have pleased nobody, so I think that the answer that Rudy gave was as good as any.
April 11th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
daveG again you are incredibly sensible and a really, really, REALLY down-to-earth responder. From what I recall there was no good answer for everyone. It was a terrible, emotional experience for all parties involved. For that reporter to harp on it so, is absolutely ridiculous.
April 11th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
People have terrible, emotional experiences all the time, and when it is because parties disagree, they rely on the courts. For the United States Congress to step in was unprecedented and ridiculous, no matter what your views on end-of-life issues. You can’t argue the courts should not legislate, and then applaud the legislative branch for “adjudicating.”
April 11th, 2007 at 6:30 pm
Good post dave. This is a no win situation for anybody.
April 11th, 2007 at 8:12 pm
DB, Ryan Sager is extremely pro-Giuliani, regardless of the fact his work appears in the New York Sun.
Kavon, the whole point here is that Mayor Giuliani ostensibly is not allowing his staff to conduct “murder boards” with him to distill his positions into smooth and succinct campaign friendly responses. Best guess is that the Mayor does not want to go through the painful exercise of having campaign staff challenge his policy positions and figures that he knows what he believes and does not need to prepare for the stump - which is a huge mistake for any candidate, let alone one who is trying to mollify conservatives. Furthermore, the Mayor’s inner circle of old time New York City aides is not going to suggest or make him go through the exercises that his new campaign staffers know from experience are necessary under the circumstances, which is an insular, arrogant, shortsighted, naive, and unproductive position for such inner circle folks to take.
Jake, this isn’t huge news but it underscores, as marK implies, a growing concern that Mayor Giuliani is not a disciplined candidate, which could be a fatal problem. In addition, these gaffes illustrate that the New York City inner circle folks for the Mayor are not prepared for the prime time of a presidential election. This story reflects a symptom of a bigger problem for Giuliani.