The American Spectator

Print Email

Text Size

Campaign Crawlers

(Page 2 of 2)

Without mentioning Rudy Giuliani, key points in Pataki's speech seem meant to steal the former New York City Mayor's thunder. (Social moderates do not want to split the primary vote.) First, on the tough-on-crime front -- "When I took office, we started arresting the root causes of violent crime, convicting the root causes of violent crime, and putting them behind bars for long periods of time" -- and then with a first person account of shunning his security detail's insistence that he leave Lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001 for his Albany command center so he could let people know "their government was functioning and was going to protect them so they would not be afraid of what might happen in the future." Then came the requisite relaying of the Larger Meaning of It All: "I went to lower Manhattan to reassure the people," Pataki said. "I came from lower Manhattan reassured by the people."

TOWARD THE END OF HIS SPEECH, Pataki has a decent laugh line laying out "neutral, objective proof that our policies work for everyone." He imagines the thinking behind the decision of a "certain prominent couple" to move to New York, rather than his home state of Arkansas or her home state of Illinois, and concludes, "Bill and Hillary Clinton voted with their feet for Republican policies."

Well, let's not go too crazy on the New York-as-a-conservative-Mecca tip. In the middle of the bit, however, another two ear shattering explosions came out of the militia camp just as Pataki was noting how the former First Family could have gone to Hollywood to be with Barbra Streisand and pals.

"I mention Barbra Streisand and the cannon goes off," Pataki joked.

Now if the Governor could only create his own big bang, he'd really be getting somewhere.

topics:
Taxes, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Law, Founding Fathers, Conservatism