Normally, I like Rick Brookhiser. He does, granted, usually come across as a jaded urbanite who's good for historical data on the Founding Fathers, but sometimes he delivers other interesting gems once you take into consideration his limitations. Not last night, though. He gives us a summation of the Republican candidates so far, and dubs Thompson "by far the weakest potential president of the top tier Republicans".

Mr. Brookhiser's snide analysis of the top tier (Giuliani, McCain, Romney, Thompson) says of the ex-NYC mayor, "Strongest is Giuliani who, alone of all the candidates in both parties, has done something. Two things—saved New York City; and led America for two days six years ago."

Blah blah, saved New York City. To someone outside of the Five Boroughs (and therefore the irredeemable hinterland), saving that cesspool is of dubious value. Sure, hizzoner may have cleaned out the Augean Stables, but they're still the Augean Stables at the end of the day.

Furthermore, what's this "led America for two days" stuff? I don't remember the Mayor of the City of New York being in the line of Constitutional succession to the Presidency under the 25th Amendment (or any other law, for that matter). From what I understand, the National Command Authority was never really out of position and since all Cabinet officers and members of Congress and various others in the coordinate branches of government survived, there isn't any cognizable claim to a city mayor in New York State being the "leader".

By Mr. Brookhiser's logic, I could perhaps argue that the Chairman of the County Board for Arlington, Virginia "led the nation", because last time I checked, the 11 September attacks hit other targets than Manhattan. Oh, wait, it's the City Desk guy for National Review; only New York matters to them.

Bah. I don't want that Yankee as our nominee.

Posted by: Country Pundit at 01:49 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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