Please God, Anybody But Rudy!!!

Last night I got to see the Republican debate on Fox News from the University of South Carolina. There were a number of things that stood out to me, for instance, Fox News' Chris Wallace, Brit Hume, and Wendell Goller are far more professional and have a much better grasp of the issues than the folks over at MSNBC. The candidates were given ample amount of time to answer, but also were not allowed to drone on. I sat there watching and I think to myself, who the hell does Rudy Giuliani think he is? America's Mayor? You're not even New York City's favorite mayor (Mike Bloomberg is) and as far as 9/11 goes. Why doesn't Rudy go poll the FDNY and NYPD and find out how popular he is with them? The answer is that he is extremely unpopular with the Bravest and the Finest.

I thought that the way Rudy jumped all over Texas Congressman Ron Paul was appalling. Rudy went after Paul because Mr. Paul said that America has to be more vigilant when making foreign policy to prevent future terrorist attacks. I think it is actually a fair and practical point. Yet, Rudy decided to turn bulldog and went into this whole thing that Paul was blaming America for being attacked. He then went on to talk about "what it was like to live through 9/11." OK fine Rudy you did show great poise in the face of unprecedented evil. However, America has to ask herself who it supports, why, and what is the potential risk involved? Quite often we end up fighting people that we have supported in the past. I'll give you an example:

A few days ago an Afghan warlord said that he had been in touch with Usama Bin Laden and that Mr. B.L. is doing fine, etc. etc. That warlord - Gulbaddin Hekmatyar - is leading the insurgency in Afghanistan, separate from the Taliban. Oddly enough we used to give money and arms to this warlord, yet it was only a few years ago we tried to kill him with a missile.

Paul was trying to say that maybe we should examine why we are getting involved in other countries' affairs, when quite frankly we have enough of our own to mind. He is one of the view brave enough to say that we should hold our allies accountable for their actions.

The old Arab expression, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend," for me doesn't cut it anymore. I'm glad that Paul mentioned that the U.S. is building 14 permanent military bases throughout Iraq. Yeah, that's right, 14. That's why I've always found it quite phony when I hear politicians talk about bringing home the troops. I'll bet anyone we have 50,000 troops in Iraq 10 years from now. We are establishing a permanent presence there and the American public should understand that. I'm not going into if it is right or wrong in this post, that's for another time.

Oh yeah, and by the way Rudy please stop mentioning your name with Ronald"Dutch"Reagan's. You my friend are not the shining light for the Republican Party. Rudy, also went on and on about how he supports "any means" in getting information from terrorists. So if we decide to torture, then I don't want to hear anyone complain when our civilians or troops are tortured.

"America's Mayor" also made reference to the time shortly after 9/11 when he told then-Crown Prince Abdullah to take his $10 million donation and stick it. Well, if Rudy gets elected he still gets to deal with Abdullah, who is now King of Saudi Arabia.

Terrorists have struck America for many reasons, it is not limited to our freedom and the freedoms that women enjoy. Foreign policy has had an impact, there is no question about that. Not just ours, but that of our "buddies." Paul made a good point, but Rudy couldn't bear to hear a differing view. Paul was not expressing a conspiracy theory, he was backing up what he was saying, unlike the increasingly loony Democrats who believe that the Twilight Zone actually was based in reality.

I have no idea who will get my vote for President, but God please, don't let Rudy get the nomination or at least give us a third party candidate like, Mike Bloomberg.