It'll be interesting to see how many fatcats max out contributions to Guiliani in the wake of this statement.

I look exactly like Rudy - Humiliation thy name is Richard.

How much does plastic surgery cost? Then again, I can be one of his Saddam-like doubles.

To all young folks - life does't get easier.

If he gets elected, I'm going to start drinking again. (on my way to Canada)

thanks, J -- that is indeed one of the best pieces of parody ever produced...

It's weird, but this presidential campaign seems to be playing out a lot like the 2000 New York Senate campaign. Rudy was going to crush Hillary then, but started saying all kinds of stupid stuff, crashed in the polls, started getting cancer treatments or something, and, pretty much disappeared politically.

Until 9-11-01.

That's also when his poll numbers were that the levels The Decider's are at today.

I disagree, jfaberuiuc. I think that's only the second most eerily prescient parody piece ever produced.

Number one is the Onion Point-Counterpoint from March 2003:

"Point: This War Will Destabilize The Entire Mideast Region And Set Off A Global Shockwave Of Anti-Americanism."

"Counterpoint: No It Won't."

And that was today's edition of "Rudy Guiliani is full of shit."

Interesting that he's campaigning in California.

I don't know if everyone making $200K per year is necessarily a robber-baron...

Gee, thanks for the benefit of the doubt.

...but those people are not part of the Democrats core economic constituency. If you make $200K/year and want to maximize your economic well-being, vote GOP.

Great thinking, dude. Way to win an election!

Look, I don't doubt that people with gross incomes above $200k are wealthy, but most in that bracket that I know of do that based on salaried incomes and are the senior people in regular jobs.

I also don't see a problem with raising taxes for that bracket (but maybe we could at least start with getting rid of the millionaire tax breaks first) but demonizing that group, calling them names and suggesting they vote GOP probably isn't a good way to go. There are many such people around here, and they're typically progressives and the drivers of fundraising and organizing for progressive causes.

I agree with Fred_Mac, except that many Americans think they are relatively better off compared to other Americans than they actually are. There was a poll during the last Presidential campaign in which something like 15% of Americans thought their families earned within the top 2% on which Kerry thought we should raise taxes. Given the margin of Kerry's loss, this may have been a key reason the Decider is still at the helm.

I am a self-employed consultant, making nearly $200k/year and do NOT consider myself wealthy by any means. I am a single mom, and what I make is the ONLY source of income to our household.

By the time I pay my full 17% to FICA (social security, no employer to pay the other half) plus Federal and State tax, health insurance premiums ($420/mo. and no, these are not tax deductible) and fund my personal IRA (I am not deluded enough to think social security will support me in 20 years), attempt to fund my son's college 529, pay the mortgage on my modest two-bedroom home in a Philly suburb, plus pay after-school and summer childcare which allows me to work a full day, there really isn't much left over. Add to that gas, utilities, food, clothing, etc. and it explains why I drive a 2000 Ford and we vacation once a year to visit out-of-state family, or go tent-camping on weekends.

Perhaps $200k per year would be considered "wealthy" in some areas of the country, especially if your employer has an average benefits package (which, by the way, are entirely tax deductible for the employer) but I can assure you that anyone living in New York, D.C., most of California or many, many other areas of this country would NOT agree.

PEACE

You say that like it's a bad thing. :-)

There was good music then too.

The tax situation in this country is broken and I think most reasonable people can agree on this. But in my mind the larger problem is how that tax money is spent.

The criminal waste that occurs every year in Washington should be the #1 thing on all Americans minds when they pull a handle in an election. Not abortion. Not guns. Not gays. Not even terrorists. Why in the hell do you worry what color your ship is painted and if there might be pirates out there somewhere when it's full of holes and sinking?

Iraq is an ongoing gangrenous wound on our nation not only in lives and international integrity but also financially. And it's not the only financial wound we suffer from. If we pulled the plug on the wasted funds in the Iraq fiasco, the seemingly endless Pork projects in Washington and the insulting subsidies handed out to big businesses we could begin to right the ship. Once we stopped all that economic bleeding we could then attack the tax code and structure it in a manner that offered (gasp... fairness!) to everyone and allow all access to the "American Dream".

I'm highly skeptical that Hillary intends to do any of those things, but I'm certain no Republican will. And Rudy is definitely in the Republican camp on this issue. When the hell will the "average Joe" in this country realize that when they see a economic hack on TV talking about how great our economy is (and pointing at Wall Street's recent surges as proof) that they are talking about that top 1-2% of Americans? Huzzah! The Dow closed at another record high! And that's helping the "average Joe" make ends meet exactly how? It's not. As a matter of fact I think that what it actually indicates is an increase in the gap between the haves and the have-nots. Sure, our nation's wealth and economy are complex and intertwined entities...but there are amazingly few strings tying the average WE to them then there are for the very few THEM.

is it me or is rudy giulliani the biggest gasbag that isn't part of the bush junta? this mental midget apparently has never read a single book or scholarly article on u.s. foreign policy and gleefully delights in this amazing ignorance. he willingly uses his bully pulpit to attack anyone who attempts to inject ratioanle or big words into the conversation on foreign policy. who are these losers who actually pay money to sit an audience while rudy stands at a podium and speaks about leadership? it seems to me that his only qualification is that he ran around the rubble at ground zero while the great chicken hawk in chief hid for a day in his luxury plane. this would-be "decider" has no real experience with good leadership, as anyone who has lived in new york city is well aware. every time anybody has had the good sense to criticize rudy for the subpar leadership qualities he repeatedly demonstrated before and immediately after the attacks of 9/11, he simply parrots his response of "9/11" and these horse's asses applaud and drool.

No, it's not just you--Rudy is a gasbag. He may be America's mayor, but while he was the mayor of New York City, New Yorkers pretty universally hated his guts. Now all of America will have the opportunity to see why.

Silicon Valley in the 90's was on top of the world, as I recall...