Giuliani Is A Little Full of Himself

"I'm probably one of the four or five best known Americans in the world," said Rudy Giuliani in London today. He then went on to name Bill and Hillary Clinton as joining him at the top of the list.

First, someone needs to remind the former mayor that smugness is off-putting. Rule number one when you're trying to convince a couple million people to do you a favor is to not act like an ass. Bragging about your popularity was unattractive when the Heathers and Barbies did it in highschool; it's even more unattractive coming from a grown man.

Second, he may be able to make an arguable case that he's among the most well known Americans involved in politics ... if we exclude famous deceased Americans like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, Franklin Roosevelt, and Ronald Reagan. But most of Hollywood has him beat if we're talking about any American.

Finally, his campaign staff needs to instruct him to stop giving Clinton free publicity. It's okay to bring her up when you're criticising her policies or when she's in the news. But it's counterproductive to puff her up when you're not getting anything in return. That makes Giuliani's statement doubly wrong; he hurt himself and he may have helped her, even if only a little bit.

Giuliani, like Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney, went to London to meet Margaret Thostaer. I had the opportunity to see Thostaer speak years ago and was very impressed. I hope she's giving our candidates some good advice, but I wonder if they have the smarts to take it.

posted by Gabriel Malor at 12:54 AM

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