As part of his increasingly desperate bid for relevance, former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani hijacked a dinner for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker last week and told to the group, which included reporters, "I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America. He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country." Now, after many days of being ridiculed even as he grants more interviews about his beliefs, the mayor has put pen to paper for a Wall Street Journal op-ed, writing, "My blunt language suggesting that the president doesn’t love America notwithstanding, I didn’t intend to question President Obama’s motives or the content of his heart."
Ah okay, EXCEPT THAT'S LITERALLY WHAT HE DID. Giuliani continues in the op-ed, "My intended focus really was the effect his words and his actions have on the morale of the country, and how that effect may damage his performance. Let me explain." Here's an excerpt:
Our leaders’ best efforts have combined intelligence, compassion, strength and perhaps most notably a strong sense of optimism. Leading this country well means being able to capture the unlimited possibilities before us. Those possibilities exist because we have political and economic freedom that unleashes the potential in each of us. American values, worn with pride, give our nation a unique moral authority that can help achieve foreign-policy and security goals while fostering the consensus necessary to address thorny domestic issues...
Presidents John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton all possessed the ability to walk a fine line by placing any constructive criticisms regarding the ways the country might improve in the context of their unbending belief in American exceptionalism. Those presidents acknowledged America’s flaws, but always led with a fundamental belief in the country’s greatness and the example we set for the world. When President Reagan called America a shining city upon a hill, it burnished our image, rallied our allies and helped ultimately to defeat the Soviet empire.
In other words, Giuliani wants his balls stroked. But the Washington Post factchecked Giuliani's claims, and found repeated references to how much Obama loves America, like when the president said this in 2014, "I believe in American exceptionalism with every fiber of my being. But what makes us exceptional is not our ability to flout international norms and the rule of law; it is our willingness to affirm them through our actions."
What Giuliani really is doing is dog-whistling. NY Magazine points out that at least Giuliani's remarks show how Walker, who didn't denounce Giuliani's remarks, is a douchebag.
Oh, and Giuliani writes in the WSJ op-ed, "And to say, as the president has, that American exceptionalism is no more exceptional than the exceptionalism of any other country in the world, does not suggest a becoming and endearing modesty, but rather a stark lack of moral clarity." "Moral clarity" is rich coming from a guy who tried to get his wife kicked out of Gracie Mansion so his girlfriend could be there.
