This morning, everyone will rightfully be talking about Sarah Palin’s speech. It was a spectacular speech. It’d be a shame, though, if we didn’t spend a bit of time honoring Rudy Giuliani’s speech. It was a spectacular speech in its own right. Here’s one of my favorite sections of the speech:

Then he ran for…then he ran for the state legislature and he got elected. And nearly 130 times, he couldn’t make a decision. He couldn’t figure out whether to vote “yes” or “no.” It was too tough.

He voted — he voted “present.”

I didn’t know about this vote “present” when I was mayor of New York City. Sarah Palin didn’t have this vote “present” when she was mayor or governor. You don’t get “present.” It doesn’t work in an executive job. For president of the United States, it’s not good enough to be present.

You have to make a decision.

The job of most lifetime senators is to pontificate. The job of mayors, governors and presidents is to make decisions. I want someone who isn’t afraid of making decisions. I want someone in the Oval Office who makes the best decision even if there isn’t a good solution to a sticky problem. It isn’t the president’s responsibility to ignore a problem or to ‘vote present’.

There’s nothing in Sen. Obama’s resume that says he’s a great decisionmaker. The only decision he’s made that I’ve noticed was his deciding to dump Jeremiah Wright after Wright dissed him at the National Press Club.

Here’s another great section of Hizzoner’s speech:

But he’s never…he’s never run a city. He’s never run a state. He’s never run a business. He’s never run a military unit. He’s never had to lead people in crisis.

He is the least experienced candidate for president of the United States in at least the last 100 years.

Not a personal attack, a statement of fact. Barack Obama has never led anything, nothing, nada.

This reminds me of the old cliche that “after everything is said and done, more is said than done.” Hillary put it best in this quote:

“I know Sen. McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And Sen. Obama has a speech he gave in 2002.” — March 2008 campaign commercial

As good as those prior sections were, this is my favorite:

We agree. We agree with Joe Biden…one time, one time, when he said that, until he flip-flopped and changed his position. And, yes, being president means being able to answer that call at 3:00 in the morning. And that’s the one time we agree with Hillary.

But I bet you never thought Hillary would get applause at this convention. She can be right. Well, no one can look at John McCain and say that he’s not ready to be commander-in-chief. He is. He’s ready.

There’s nothing like sticking a finger in Sen. Obama’s eye with the words of another Democrat. Expect this type of attack to continue. In fact, I’m expecting there to be a back-and-forth game with McCain-Palin advertising, alternating between ridiculing Sen. Obama with Democrats’ words and touting the McCain-Palin agenda to lay out a positive agenda that people can vote for.

Rudy will be an invaluable asset this campaign. He’s great at highlighting liberals’ ineptitude and questionable logic in a humorous light. The best thing about doing things that way is that you don’t leave your target anything firm to lash back at.

Expect Democrats to get increasingly frustrated with this pattern. They can’t unload with both barrels but they can’t do nothing either. It’s east of the rock, west of the hard place type of territory.

Thanks to Rudy’s speech, Obama-Biden will spend the next couple of days figuring their way out of that predicament.

Technorati Tags: Hizzoner, Rudy Giuliani, Convention Speech, Attacks, Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

1. We shouldn’t forget Gov. Huckabee’s reminding us in his opening to thank the press, Eleanor Clift, Maureen Doud, talking heads, east coast media and I might add our own resident and visiting idiots as well, for doing so much to unite the party the last few days.

   Comment by T A Gray — September 4, 2008 @ 5:51 am