My interview with Bill Simon, Rudy’s Policy Director, is out today. Simon, a soft-spoken and wonkish fellow, talks about the origin of the 12 commitments. I would contend this was the single smartest move the Rudy camp made. It gave him an opportunity to tout his conservative policy proposals and gave a structure to the campaign. Every week or so he rolls one of these out, gets some press and sends out surrogates to explain them. It keeps us(the media) busy with substance and gives the voters the impression his campaign is about something. It is also apparent that the Rudy camp is using the 12 commitments to highlight his “accountability” theme and rigorous management style. Simon declined to offer criticism of the current Administration but I personally doubt we’d be hearing so much about executive management skills both from Rudy, and more so I think with time from Romney, if the current Administration hadn’t taken the country through Mr. Toad’s wild ride of incompetence on a host of issues.