WHY GIULIANI’S CAMPAIGN FAILED

One of the most popular editions ever of PRIMO happened last November.
We featured a cover story on Rudy Giuliani and his historic presidential bid. That issue sold out on both the newsstand and by special order within a couple of weeks from when it came off the press. We also received numerous calls from readers all over the country expressing their support and enthusiasm for his campaign.
No doubt, Italian American pride was at its peak at the prospect of having Giuliani the country’s first Italian American president.

I too was excited about Giuliani’s quest for the White House. He was the first political hero I witnessed in my lifetime. His courageous and inspiring leadership during 9/11 was truly exemplary. Growing up in the New York City metropolitan region, I can attest to the vast improvements the city witnessed under his mayoralty. I thought he had the qualifications and experience to be president. Although I doubted he would get his party’s nomination because of his stand on specific social issues, I thought his high poll numbers was proof enough that he would be in the top running for some time; at least through the spring.

Hence, I was stunned to see Giuliani at the bottom of the heap when he bowed out in late January. His drop in the polls was perhaps the steepest of any candidate in American political history.

The question arises as to what went wrong. In looking back at Giuliani’s campaign demise, I have come to a disturbing conclusion that ethnic bigotry may have been the overriding cause.

Most political pundits and commentators would probably disagree with my assessment. If asked, they would tell you that poor tactics and performance by Giuliani and his staff were the root causes of his campaign’s freefall. His high poll numbers in December were a shill. His candidacy was inherently weak. Being socially liberal, he really never had a chance to win over the socially conservative GOP. His strategy of a Florida firewall made him non-competitive in the Iowa caucus and early primaries in New Hampshire and South Carolina. He was out of the headlines too long to gain a following among voters.

All that may be true.

But those reasons do not go far enough in my opinion to explain the unprecedented collapse of Giuliani’s campaign. Something else had to be at work that helped to cause a shocking 20 percent drop in his poll numbers within a month’s time.

Subtly reinforced in voters’ minds by critical reports in mainstream media, bigotry of his Italian ethnicity may have been the overlooked but major reason for Giuliani’s defeat.
If you go back and review articles and reports on Giuliani during the fall, you will see his character repeatedly attacked.

Giuliani was described in a number of newspapers, magazines, and television programs as “harsh,” “petty,” “cruel,” “vindictive,” “mean-spirited,” “hot tempered,” “an ego maniac,” “a bully,” “arrogant,” “simple minded,” etc…

He was admonished by critics for his two failed marriages and the estranged relationship he had with his children.

One’s character is inherently tied to one’s ethnicity. Be it intentional or not, Giuliani’s critics linked him to the negative stereotypes most often associated with the Italian American male.
What the reports and commentaries together showed was not Giuliani, the former two-term mayor of New York who possessed an excellent legal mind, who made law review at NYU, who was a respected former federal prosecutor, but rather Giuliani the rogue figure, a misogynist, a deadbeat dad.He was made out to look like Tony Soprano.

No wonder his drop in the polls was so dramatic. He was the first Italian American to make a serious bid for the presidency. The first caucus and primaries were in some of the states with perhaps the least number of Italian Americans in the country. If voters in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina knew Italian Americans only by what they saw in film or on television, then the criticisms of Giuliani would have reinforced the negative stereotypes and prejudices they may have had about Italian Americans.

How could they elect Giuliani to represent the United States on the world stage when mainstream media made him out to be a thug?

They didn’t.

It is sad to see how Giuliani was treated in the media when compared to another milestone candidate Democratic Senator Barack Obama. Reports on Obama have mostly been positive. Why? Because African Americans demanded it. They defended Obama when his character was unfairly attacked and maligned earlier this year.

When members of his opponent’s team brought up Obama’s past drug use, as he wrote in his autobiography, the African American community, some of whom supported Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, rose up to defend him. The message was clear: Back off! Obama’s critics had to publicly apologize as a result. The senator was judged from then on not by his past indiscretions, but on his record and where he stood on the issues. He went on to win South Carolina and a number of primaries and caucuses that followed. He may make history as the first African American elected president.

Italian Americans must do for future Italian American presidential candidates what African Americans did for Obama. No matter if they are Republicans or Democrats, we must defend them when the character attacks ensue. By doing so, we help to stop false and misleading perceptions of our Italian ethnicity.

In Giuliani’s case, for example, his passion and combativeness was not atypical of Italian Americans. And yet, he was criticized for such behavior as being “mean” and “insensitive.” As Italian Americans, we know that sometimes our fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters may come across as overly expressive and didactic. We also know, however, that when it comes to making important decisions, they are as reasonable, thoughtful and fair-minded as is everyone else in America, no matter their ethnicity. Those who are not Italian could easily misinterpret or misconstrue traits unique to Italians as negative attributes of a person’s character. This is what happened to Giuliani, not to mention other Italian American political figures, both Democrat and Republican, in the past.

Therefore, it is important that we unify in future elections when Italian American candidates come under personal attack. We do not have to vote or support candidates simply because they are Italian Americans; but we must defend them. Only then can we ensure that America is truly a land that accepts all ethnic groups, especially those among us who run for president.