8 Great Responses to Rudy Giuliani's Obama Remarks

We may have discovered the 54th parallel of American politics. The remarks delivered by former New York mayor and onetime presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani at a private dinner for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker manifested a feat that seemed impossible in these ultra-partisan times: push-back from both sides of the aisle. The initial quote that set things off: “I do not believe, and I know this is a horrible thing to say, but I do not believe that the president loves America,” Giuliani said during the dinner at the 21 Club, a former Prohibition-era speakeasy in midtown Manhattan. “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.” I have always admired Rudy Giuliani. His comments y’day were terribly wrong. Shameful to say, painful to hear http://t.co/QBcHqaYktY — David Frum (@davidfrum) February 19, 2015 *pulls string* Rudy Giuliani says something indefensibly awful — Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) February 19, 2015 “Why won’t Obama buy America flowers every now and then? Why won’t he make dinner for her one night?” — Giuliani, probably — Sam Stein (@samsteinhp) February 19, 201 Barrett in @NYDailyNews on inherent hypocrisy of Giuliani, who loves his country so much, he ducked the draft: http://t.co/ZZbnp5dsi2 — Clyde Haberman (@ClydeHaberman) February 20, 2015 Wayne Barrett, who has written books on the subject, offered a point-by-point takedown of Giuliani's comments, turning the former mayor's own critique back to him: Giuliani went so far as to rebuke the President for not being "brought up the way you were and the way I was brought up through love of this country," a bow no doubt to the parenting prowess of Harold Giuliani, who did time in Sing Sing for holding up a Harlem milkman and was the bat-wielding enforcer for the loan-sharking operation run out of a Brooklyn bar owned by Rudy's uncle. Giuliani's father & uncle were criminals. Obama's grandfather & uncle helped to liberate Europe. http://t.co/jBa3hfDmJl — Dan Zak (@MrDanZak) February 20, 2015 In the Times follow-up, Giuliani denied that his remarks were racist. Rather: “Some people thought it was racist — I thought that was a joke, since he was brought up by a white mother, a white grandfather, went to white schools, and most of this he learned from white people,” Mr. Giuliani said in the interview. “This isn’t racism. This is socialism or possibly anti-colonialism.” This inspired a Jeet Heer Twitter essay on colonialism and its American fans: Now in storify form, my thoughts on Giulini and origins of American pro-colonialist rhetoric: https://t.co/mTRyDANvcu — Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) February 20, 2015 Not fans of colonialism? Our founding fathers: So Giuliani slams Obama as anti-colonialist. Does this mean he'd also denounce Founding Fathers as anti-colonialist? http://t.co/sG3sS1qOA3 — Steven Greenhouse (@greenhousenyt) February 20, 2015 The winning tweet, however, goes to Sally Kohn, for her seamless merging of two stories. If Giuliani keeps digging any further, he’ll be in the Falkland Islands… — Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) February 20, 2015

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8 Great Responses to Rudy Giuliani's Obama Remarks

So much to say, so many ways to say it.

Corinne Grinapol

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Corinne Grinapol