From our new-and-already-good friends down at the Alabama Democratic Party comes word of a Rudy gaffe that showcases how spectacularly out-of-touch the man is. Via the AP:
But when asked about more mundane matters – like the price of some basic staples – Giuliani had trouble with a reporter’s question.“A gallon of milk is probably about a $1.50, a loaf of bread about a $1.25, $1.30,” he said.
A check of the Web site for D’Agostino supermarket on Manhattan’s Upper East Side showed a gallon of milk priced at $4.19 and a loaf of white bread at $2.99 to $3.39. In Montgomery, Ala., a gallon of milk goes for about $3.39 and bread is about $2.
And this isn’t tucked away at the bottom of the story – the headline is “Republican candidate off the mark on cost of milk, bread.” Ouch. They even bring up one of my favorite all-time gaffes: that wonderful time when George Bush père was mesmerized by a supermarket checkout scanner. Ah, those were the days.
Of course, to us New Yorkers, this comes as no surprise. Rudy Giuliani doesn’t even know how long it takes to wait for a streetlight to turn green – his body men would stop traffic at every corner so that His Highness could stroll by without having to tarry like the rest of us plebes, on those rare occasions he deigned to dirty the soles of his shoes on city sidewalks. Let’s just put it this way: Rudy is no man of the people.
And turning back to that classic Bush-41 moment, there’s no question it helped cement his image as a clueless, distant old man who wasn’t in tune with America. I still remember him trying to connect with a college crowd once, declaring that Al Gore was “way out, far out, man” – and of course managing to sound like the world’s oldest, uncoolest hippie. Even fifteen years later, it still makes me cringe.
Now, with GHWB, the checkout scanner incident fit neatly, almost perfectly, into a pre-existing narrative about the guy. That narrative doesn’t exist yet with Giuliani, but even if a gaffe like this doesn’t serve as a “defining moment,” it can certainly help in the creation of a new narrative. And when it comes to Giuliani, branding him as out-of-touch would indeed be accurate to a T.
To be fair, I can get a really cheap loaf of white bread for 99 cents here in Philly. Being from downstate NY, though, and having visited NYC frequently, I do wonder where Rudy got the notion that milk and bread was that cheap.
…why Rudy’s handlers have been keeping him confined to highly-controlled events. It’s clear that he can’t handle unscripted segments that well. Ironic considering that 9/11 was the biggest “unscripted segment” of his political career, and the one that got him this far.
Even here in Georgia, your probably going to pay at least three dollars for a gallon of milk. No wonder Republicans don’t give a shit about the poor, working class, middle class. They (Republicans) have a seriously warped view of the cost of a living.
conservatives are not happy Boustany and Vitter have endorsed Guliani. I imagine the Louisiana Democratic Party will be nailing all of them soon.
What do you think of this image:
Vitter is on the left, and Boustany of LA-07 is on the right.