If the Election Were Today...

If the 2008 Presidential Election were held today, I would vote for this man. Rudy Giuliani, as of now, has my vote. There are two reasons I would vote for him ; he is a lawyer, and he successfully managed a large and complex economy and population as mayor of NYC. These are two qualities I deem important.

The broader implications of why I would vote for Giuliani are difficult to define. Many Americans incorrectly talk about things such as foreign policy, relations with China, etc., as major issues. The reality is, for the most part every major candidate in the field would deal with China in the same fashion. It doesn't matter if Hillary Clinton or Mitt Romney were elected, their respective China policies would likely be the same, or at least far more similar than many people assume. This is because there are certain established intellectual institutions developed in our nation, mainly those dealing with foreign policy, economics, free trade, etc., that are based on consensus norms. While taking a bus to school last week I was sadly forced to listen to Michael Savage for five minutes, as he lamely attempted to articulate why Hillary Clinton's foreign policy ideas were bad. To the layperson, I think he purported to convey a good argument, but to a student of foreign policy, I recognized he was not actually saying anything, his argument was nonsense, he re-phrased some quote of hers and attempted to make it sound like the quote she used was a 'term of art,' which it was not. A term of art in a certain field conveys a precise denotation.

So what are the valid reasons to vote for Giuliani? For one, he is authentic. Politics have become so inauthentic in America the last decade or so it is truly frightening. To me, Giuliani is an authentic candidate. He is thrice divorced, but unlike Newt Gingrich, he has never portrayed himself as a pillar of Americana moral values. He is an attorney, though he has not, at least yet, given in to the phony argument of the right in pandering to the notion of tort reform, a valid political idea 20 years ago that, surprise surprise, has actually already occurred in most states via legislation imposing award limits in tort litigation! And most importantly, I like Giuliani because he has not attempted to make any pronouncements that are etched in stone defining his policy preferences. In the United States we lamely think our candidates should make up their minds as to every issue before taking office. This is a ridiculous notion; in the world as we know it, ideas change, policies either work or don't work, and governing strategies need to be flexible. In 2000 many people were sick of Clinton's management strategy, which was to approach each issue in a non-dogmatic fashion and be willing to be flexible. As a result, we elected Bush and Cheney, two candidates who positioned their policy inflexibility as a virtue. Clearly, this ain't working. I embrace Giuliani's vague centrist mantra, I think it is precisely what we need.