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Walter Shapiro and Jodi Kantor

the breakfast table
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from: Jodi Kantor

Hillary and Rudy: The Coming Funfest

Posted Wednesday, Aug. 4, 1999, at 6:16 PM ET

Dear Walter,

If you know so much about the New York Senate race, then please tell me who is going to win.

Speaking of playing dirty, don't misquote me. I wrote that Giuliani was a "more complex and appealing guy" than your cartoonish description dictated. And I only praised Giuliani's press strategy for instilling the kind of staff loyalty that Al Gore so desperately needs; I duly noted that it's "overly suspicious and vituperative."

Walter, have you read and written so much about the Clinton-Giuliani matchup that you've become inured to its potential drama? C'mon, it's so basic: male vs. female, local politician vs. national figure, technocrat vs. idealist. Both are trying to recast themselves dramatically: Hillary from her post as a political spouse and amateur policy wonk, Rudy from his job as hands-on city manager. Does the idea of a first lady winning elected office not intrigue you at all? And even you admit to some interest in how Giuliani might possibly re-fashion himself into a good party soldier.

It sounds like you've already imagined this campaign down to the suits the candidates will wear in their commercials. But no one really knows how these two will perform, or how voters will receive them. They're both familiar figures yet somewhat unknown quantities (Hillary as a candidate, Rudy as anything but mayor). Sure, this suspense may evaporate with the first round of stumping and baby-kissing--it could become Giuliani-Messinger redux, or D'Amato-Schumer writ larger and uglier. But right now, it's all anticipation.

Does it trouble you that Hillary is running as a first lady? It troubles me that so many pundits are so troubled by it. During the week after JFK Jr.'s death I heard a slew of talk-show hosts praise "the Kennedy family, our nation's premier political dynasty" in one breath, and condemn Hillary's candidacy in the next, on the grounds that she is cynically leveraging her husband's name and connections to get herself elected. How did the Kennedy kids or the Bush boys win office? What about Mary Bono and Lurleen Wallace, wives who stepped directly into their husbands' positions? If Hillary used White House funds for travel or other campaign-related needs, then we'd have an ethical lapse to discuss (and a lapse of common sense. Given her history of financial scandal, she'd be a fool to do anything improper). Nepotism is unfair by definition, but it's even less fair to level those charges selectively.

Until tomorrow,
Jodi

P.S.: On the death announcements: Maybe some families are indeed too disconsolate to write meaningful prose. But plenty of eulogies contain good copy. So I still don't see why death announcements can't honor the departed in the same way.

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516171819
from: Jodi Kantor

Hillary and Rudy: The Coming Funfest

Posted Wednesday, Aug. 4, 1999, at 6:16 PM ET
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Walter Shapiro is the political columnist for USA Today. Jodi Kantor is an associate editor at Slate.
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