Gothamist: Giuliani: Not Ready for Presidential Time?

anonymass

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 09:26:04 -0500

I don't think that all Republican voters are neo-cons. I went out of my way to agree with your premise that the GOP voter base is segmented and voting on issues that are against their own self-interests as a collective group - whether their interests are economic or ideological. As for the rich getting richer, yes, that will probably continue, but Bush's tax cuts have exacerbated disparities in wealth. And due to the machinations of the Republican-led Congress, the poor have serious restrictions for bankruptcy, white collar crime is at an all-time high, corrupt government contracting is rampant(Halliburton's no-bid sweetheart contracts, for example) and so on. Please tell me you don't *really* think the GOP is doing a single thing to protect the poor or the working class in this country. Lastly, the surplus under Clinton was not due in large part to a bubble in the stock market, it was due to sound fiscal policy first and foremost. The Dow set new highs last week and we're sitting on a huge debt and deficit under Bush. Explain that.

buy a clue

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 00:38:02 -0500

j and anonymass just made my point. Of all the things said by anonymass I'd like to pick on two: the rich continued to get richer during the 1990s and they pretty much have been since the late 1960s. The post-WW II boom years is about the only time in US history the middle class has expanded. And the "surplus" was a result of a bubble in the economy and in the stock market. Yes, taxes were increased but don't forget the cuts in military spending post-Cold War. If you doubt the effects of the stock market on tax revenue you should check out the recent government revision of the projected deficit. Tax receipts are becoming more difficult to project. As for hatemongering, again, you missed the point. If you continue to assume that all GOP voters are neo-cons just because the current leadership is you will continue to misunderstand voter patterns. And furthermore, the most intolerant people I interact with on a daily basis are far left Democrats in NYC that refuse to discuss anything rationally and paint their opposition in broad strokes. The Columbia University students drowning out the Minutemen comes to mind. J does as well.

j

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 22:22:16 -0500

buy a clue, I don't think Republicans are stupid. Just hatemongering hypocrites who are in constant denial.

anonymass

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 20:59:58 -0500

'buy a clue' makes some valid points, but in the end we still know Republican voters to be pretty fucking stupid - (aside from the rich who more than likely attained their status by stomping all over others so they have no problem with a lack of scruples.) The rich aside: How the pro-small-government reconcile voting for Bush is beyond me. These people reviled Clinton, all the while he mollified the fuckups of Bush Sr. and left Jr. with a surplus. We all know how that turned out. How the Christian right votes for the warmongering party of greed escapes all logic. I'm sorry, but Clinton was a hell of a lot more "Christian" in his values than every Bush alive put together (with the exception of his one major misstep with M.L. which is apparently unforgivable.) Bombing the holy hell out of tens of thousands of people for no reason, lying, torturing, enacting fiscal policies that make the rich richer and the poor poorer...sorry, those aren't particularly Christian values. How poor southerners continue to vote for the party that has continually forsaken them is, again, just baffling. Katrina? Federal tax policies? Cutting of benefits for the poor? In summary: a pretty fucking stupid group of people who obviously haven't put much critical thought into their own self interests.

buy a clue or shut up

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 18:57:09 -0500

j is yet another Democrat that just doesn't understand politics. Republicans are not one mass of people that all share the same beliefs about every issue. For every neo-con there are about a dozen moderates. Most are simply "small government" Republicans that continue to vote for the GOP regardless of the current leaderhship's runaway spending. These voters tend to be located in the midwest and mountain states. The religious voters the Gothamist posters love to ridicule tend to be from the South. But you guys like to paint everyone with one broad stroke so you end up insulting about 50% of the registered electorate. And after you lose you wonder where it all went wrong. Rather than use you self-proclaimed better educated brains you simply declare the voters to be stupid. and tehe cycle repeats.

Max

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 17:42:27 -0500

And don't forget the other black mark against him in the GOP- he is a Papist.

s

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 16:56:20 -0500

this is Rudy's one and only campaign platform: http://www.oldamericancentury.org/gopconstrm.mov

mrd in nyc

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 15:43:03 -0500

Neither you nor the Daily News' Ben Smith appear to understand what "swift boat" means in terms of politics. Swiftboating doesn't merely mean the organized attack of an opponent targeting a perceived strong point. It means the ad hominem attack of an opponent based primarily on subjective opinion. It's a form of character assassination. The problems with air quality in lower Manhattan were known by both Christine Todd Whitman and Rudy Giulaini immediately after the attacks. The people who didn't know were the public and the rescuers. These are facts. To suggest that organized opposition to Giulaini based on this issue would be swiftboating diminishes the seriousness of the air quality issue.

Schadenfreudian Mensch

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 14:20:40 -0500

I like how you guys worked in the whole reference to "Giuliani Time."

j

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 14:04:47 -0500

pro gay rights is anathema to a republican. You can make midwesterners vote for osama if he was running against Ellen degeneres. The republicans hate gays more than anything in the universe.