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America's Mayor is out.

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Does Giuliani's defeat mean the end of 9/11 politics?

Rudy Giuliani's distant third-place finish in Florida killed his bid for president. But does Giuliani's defeat also mark the beginning of the end of an era in Republican politics that began on Sept. 11, 2001?

Politico.com's Ben Smith and David Paul Kuhn suggest that Giuliani's national celebrity was based on his steady, comforting appearance in Americans' living rooms amid the terrorist attacks, and his campaign for president never found a message beyond that moment. But the emotional connection he forged that day, it seems, has proved politically worthless.

Americans' memory of 9/11 might not have been enough to deliver a victory to Giuliani. But how much does the perceived link between Giuliani and 9/11 really matter this election?

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Ben likes: The end of 9/11 political reporting, perhaps

Ed Morrissey/Captain's Quarters

Those of us who have followed the campaign know the reasons behind the failure had nothing to do with 9/11 -- because the campaign itself mostly avoided referencing it. The campaign lost its footing when the press began hyperventilating about a "scandal" from six years ago that even the New York Times later admitted was old news and represented no illegal conduct. It followed that with a poor decision to stop competing in the early states and allow the media to focus so much on his rivals that
Giuliani became the Forgotten Man.

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Joel likes: Goodbye, Rudy Giuliani

Matt Littman/Huffington Post

He could not stop talking about 9/11. As Joe Biden said, Rudy's sentences consist of a noun, a verb and 9/11. Rudy's constant invocation has become a running joke. For Rudy, this campaign will end. But the damage to his life -- that will go on forever. Rudy will no longer be the hero of 9/11. He will be the man who tried to capitalize on 9/11. He will not be regarded as a savior, but as a huckster, a man who took and took from our great day of tragedy to benefit only himself.

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Thoughts

9/11 fatigue? Not an option

Submitted on January 30th, 2008 by Ben

From Abe Greenwald at Contentions: "It shouldn’t be so hard to see that six years into this ongoing war '9/11 fatigue' is a luxury beyond our means. But Americans must always live beyond their means, so now we’re tired of having to worry about the armies sworn to kill us. Could this possibly be what Osama bin Laden was driving at when he said the Russians were hard to defeat but the Americans, because they’re decadent, will be a piece of cake?"

9/11 isn't a bludgeon anymore

Submitted on January 30th, 2008 by Joel

I do hope you'll read my blog on this topic, but here's the essence of it:

Rudy Giuliani's campaign turned out to be a reductio ad absurdum version of Republican political campaigns of the post 9/11 era, which exploited fears of terrorism in crass ways for political gain. The most famous example was the 2002 commercial that featured the face of Max Cleland -- a Democratic senator and Vietnam veteran -- alongside the face of Osama bin Laden. But it played out in a million different ways over the years.

It worked. And it kept working, through the 2004 cycle. But voters noticed that Republicans weren't necessarily doing that great a job of actually managing the wars of the 9/11 era. The GOP can, perhaps, claim to be tougher on the issue of terrorism, but it remains a very open question as to whether it is smarter.

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