I'm not a big Giuliani fan, and a lot of people have been talking up McCain as tough on the war, but I found this an interesting contrast. I'd have trouble pulling the lever for McCain. He's not Jimmy Carter, or Huckabee, but I don't think that he'd have any problem with the current State Department, which is one of the many federal agencies that needs to be azed and rebuilt.

[Update]

A good (and related) point about Giuliani:

Frum argues, in response to a post of mine, that Giuliani is the anti-terrorists' candidate because he has a proven track record of riding herd on the bureaucracies beneath him to accomplish his objectives. This line of argument would be a lot more persuasive if, in the years preceding Sept. 11, Giuliani had managed to get his fire and police departments to be able to communicate with each other in emergencies.

ANDY MCCARTHY (see, I followed the link) has completely misread Rudy Giuliani. There are two Rudy Giulianis. There is Giuliani the centrist bureaucrat who ran on the Liberal and Republican Party tickets at the same time. And there is Giuliani the "visionary" who likes to escape out the back door. Don't expect him to overthrow the State Department. The only institution that he has ever razed and restaffed is his marriage.

Someone once passed along the insight that the true polarity in Washington is not between Republicans and Democrats, but between the State Department and the Department of Defense. Different Presidents have leaned one way or the other, with different consequences for their Presidencies. And you might be tempted to identify DoS (D) and DoD (R), but this rule is only approximate. Think LBJ/McNamara, Nixon/Kissinger.

So rebuilding State is a far more radical proposal than it might seem at first blush. You're talking about eliminating the balance of power in D.C.

BBB

Even the military branches often can't communicate, SINCGARS notwithstanding.

Rudy is the only candidate who is *known* to have refused Saudi money. That trumps a messy love life in my book. (Not backing anybody, just tired of reading attacks on Rudy's lust & loves from people who don't seem to be bothered by the mess a certain president created in the 90s by listening to his willy.)

Giuliani appears to be staking out positions that while supportable, are sufficiently far out of the main stream to hurt him in the general election. The standard strategy is to try to stay as centrist as possible while gathering enough primary votes to win. Giuliani is not following the standard strategy in this or in focusing on later primary states.

I apologize if this is off-topic, but on the topic of contrasts, Ben Smith's politico.com blog has one today that I thought Rand would enjoy about a visit to the grocery store by Bill and Hillary Clinton in Des Moines:

[O]n the way out of the store, a woman asked Bill to sign a greenback. Bill obliged, while pointing out "this isn't legal" to the amusement of folks standing nearby.

A few minutes later, the same request was made to the senator, who said that she couldn't do it. "I can't sign money. That's illegal. I'm so sorry," she said.

No polemics from me- I just thought that it was pretty funny.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1207/The_Clintons.html