Rudy Giuliani
Giuliani AWOL In Cyberspace
Yes, Rudy Giuliani has a sizable lead in the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll. Yes, Giuliani is considered the Republican frontrunner (though Mitt Romney mightily disagrees). But in the online race, where social networking sites such as YouTube, Facebook and MySpace offer easy, cheap, innovative ways to rally the base, Hizzoner has fallen way behind the pack.
It's gotten so glaringly obvious that a spokesman for Eons.com, the MySpace for baby boomers, called The Post earlier this week. Giuliani, the spokesman told us, is the only big-name contender who doesn't have an Eons profile. Baffled, the spokesman wondered: " Um, what's going on with Giuliani's online presence?"
We've been wondering that for months.
Giuliani's the only candidate whose MySpace profile is set to private. ("Is there any special wisdom that he can claim for being the only one with a private profile?" quipped a Republican online political operative.) He's invisible on Facebook, where the profiles of Rep. Ron Paul, an online darling, and Romney, whose five sons are blogging it up online, have 14,000 and 12,000 supporters, respectively. And while Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, has posted YouTube-specific videos ("The Sopranos" spoof the best among them), Giuliani keeps on merely uploading speeches and television appearances on his YouTube channel.
Interestingly enough, when the International Association of Fire Fighters took out their video hit on the former New York mayor, Hizzoner issued a detailed prebuttal -- in the form of a press release.
(Some background: Katie Harbarth, formerly of the Republican National Committee's eCampaign shop, heads Giulian's online team. Patrick Ruffini, the Webmaster for Bush's re-election campaign in 2004, served as Giuliani's online adviser for four months but left a few weeks ago; his departure "was done amicably," he said, but he declined further comment.
"There's been a lot of talk about the gap between the Republicans and Democrats online. Well, there's a gap within the GOP, too. Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney and John McCain are on one side. And Rudy Giuliani is on another," snapped a frustrated Republican OPO, who's unaffiliated with a campaign and declined to be identified.
Added Matt Lewis, a blogger and director of operations at Townhall, the popular conservative site (who thankfully agreed to be identified): "There are two reasons why Rudy is lagging behind online. First of all, he's the frontrunner. If you look at the campaigns that really do innovative, revolutionary things online, they are usually the underdog campaigns -- Ron Paul. When you're a frontrunner like Rudy, you don't want to take risks and make mistakes. Secondly, I've been to events where Rudy has spoken. He's very guarded. He's not the most accessible of candidates, and that's the online campaign that he's run so far."
Is this why Hizzoner is leaning towards snubbing the upcoming CNN/YouTube debate on Sept. 17?
Already, Republican OPOs, young turks such as Ruffini and David All, have launched an online petition to urge Giuliani and others to attend the GOP's turn on videopopulism on Sept. 17.
Josh Hersh, a student at Kansas State and a Giuliani supporter, has made a YouTube video touting the petition.
youtube
-- Jose Antonio Vargas
Posted at 4:38 PM ET on Jul 27, 2007
| Category:
Rudy Giuliani
Share This: 
Technorati
| Tag in Del.icio.us | Digg This
Posted by: malibu.2010 | July 29, 2007 11:46 PM
Laurazzcap!
Internet savvy folks are a somewhat wider constituency than 18-24 year olds. It's probably fair to say we're talking 18-45 year olds. And any of them that have even the mildest interest in politics is going to pick up on this and perceive that Rudy and Romney are frightened to take questions from ordinary Americans. Even if a couple of them dress up in funny suits. So we will have a situation where a woman is not frightened to take questions in this format but America's heroic mayor is running scared. If Rudy and Romney think they are going to be able to get through this election by facing only audiences of hand picked supporters as Bush always does, then they might as well concede now.
Posted by: johnbsmrk | July 29, 2007 8:12 AM
Or perhaps Mr Giuliani knows younger people lean left (recent NY Times poll) and they don't vote. Remeber all of the hoopla with "Rock The Vote" in the previous election. Well according to the Census Bureau, only 47 percent of citizens 18 - 24 voted in the 2004 presidential election (only 58 percent registered) compared to 72 percent of citizens 55 and older who voted (79 percent registered). Despite all of that Rock The Vote hoopla that said younger people were going to turn the election on its head for Kerry, it didn't happen. So maybe, and I have no idea if it is his strategy, Mr Giuliani is: 1) not going to waste his time/money for the primaries on a demographic (18 - 24) that lean left/Democrat and 2) not going to waste time/money for the primaries on a demographic that doesn't even bother to vote.
Posted by: laurazzcap | July 29, 2007 7:53 AM
Rudy's lead in the polls has been on a steady decline since March. The more visible he is, the worse he does. He is playing the only hand he has: rely on big money and hope that his big-media-hannity-hype will carry him. Unfortunately for him, it is a new day. Politicians like him who are inconsistent and unlikeable are going to continually struggle with the power of the new media. Good luck!
Posted by: buck3 | July 27, 2007 9:38 PM
The plain and simple truth is that Rudy Giuliani is afraid.
He's afraid that Ron Paul will make a fool out of him again.
He's afraid that he wont be able to say "September 11th" as an answer to every single question.
He is afraid that he will be exposed as the incest loving cross dresser he is.
The guy had sex with his cousin. And I don't know how many times he has dressed up like a woman.
I suppose if my campaign was held together with lies and genital cheese. I might wussy out of an honest debate to.
Posted by: bigrubes2000 | July 27, 2007 8:59 PM
Ron Paul has not done anything the others haven't online. He is just a revolutionary success because of his incredible honesty and political record. People are flocking to his campaign online because of the media blackout on Ron Paul coverage. They know how powerful his message is and are trying to minimize his exposure.
Don't let the media make your decision for you. Google Ron Paul. Check out his videos on YouTube.
Posted by: dontwantit | July 27, 2007 7:57 PM
The comments to this entry are closed.
Ex-Dem, Ex-Indeep. Ex-mayor and 1969 draft dodger Rudy Giuliani is now attempting to opt out of the CNN/You Tube debate too!
Only the two Vietnam veterans - Ron Paul and John McCain - have committed to fielding questions from the citizenry. The citizens' questions - yes, some silly and some sanctuary city serious - are what Rudy can't control like a Wolf Blitzer -who would never DARE ask Rudy about his defiance of the Bush administration's INS policy before 9/11 to promote his New York Sanctuary City policy for illegal immigrants and those on expired visas, ya know, like Atta and the gang of nineteen.
It is still more than a year before the GOP National convention in St. Paul Minnesota - and Rudy the pretend catholic pro-abortion candidate is running out of holes to hide in.