The American Spectator

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The NY Times writes:

A few skeptics have wondered whether Mr. Giuliani, who has been crisscrossing the country over the last few months and signaled his interest in the presidency again and again, may ultimately back out - as he did in 2000, when he contemplated a race for the Senate but withdrew.

A "few skeptics"? That's lazy reporting, because the actual article only includes one, and even that is a tenuous example:

Bradley A. Smith, an election lawyer and a former Republican member of the commission, said that filing a candidate statement was not a definitive step. "People in the past have filed that form and then decided not to run," he said. "Filing the form may just mean that he's planning to raise some serious money that would put him outside of what the F.E.C. considers testing the waters."

At this point, nobody half-conscious believes that Giuliani isn't running, and yet that doesn't stop the Times from running this thinly sourced trash. Neither McCain nor Obama have formally announced they're running, and yet everybody assumes they are. Why is Rudy getting such different treatment?

The Times has a long-standing vendetta against Giuliani. After all, as he transformed NYC, they opposed him every step of the way and their 1960s liberalism was proven dead wrong by his successes. Now, they will do everything in their power to ensure that he isn't elected. Furthermore, if a pro-choice, pro-gay rights Republican were nominated it would completely demolish their caricature of the Republican Party as being controlled by a bunch of intolerant religious fanatics.

Here's what I predict. Should Giuliani become the Republican nominee, the NY Times front pages will give voice to every disaffected social conservative. Should he choose a socially conservative running-mate and accept a pro-life platform, the story will be about the contradictions and "deep fissures" within the Republican Party. Should Giuliani lose the nomination, he'll suddenly become a martyr. I can imagine it now: "The hero of 9/11, who delivered a rousing speech to cheering delegates in the 2004 Republican National Convention, was unceremoniously booted from his party as the Christian Ayatollahs who play kingmakers couldn't accept a leader who has tolerance for gays."

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