MITT AND RUDY: "COURAGE" AND "BOLDNESS" ARE FOR OTHER PEOPLE

Mitt Romney, April 25:

By the way, why is it that the Democrats wouldn't even go on Fox but we Republicans are happy to sit there and have Chris Matthews of the Carter administration, former chief of staff to Tip O'Neill? We're happy to sit there and have him dish questions to us, but they won't even go on Fox. It shows that we have a lot more courage of our convictions and our positions.

Rudy Giuliani, May 16:

If the Republicans candidates are willing to debate on MSNBC and CNN, the Democrats should be willing to debate on Fox. I don't think they’d want us to look like the bolder group of candidates.

Courageous, bold Mitt and Rudy now:

Over the last few hours, I'd been hearing buzz that GOP candidates were going wobbly on the CNN/YouTube debate. I was dismissive.... I didn't think the GOP candidates would make the political mistake of passing up it up.

I was apparently wrong. Rudy Giuliani is unlikely to participate, according to an official source.

And Mitt Romney wouldn't commit, dissing the "snowman question."

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I think I understand why the GOP YouTube debate is in trouble, and why these two guys in particular are bailing out.

Modern Republicanism is about projecting Maximum-Leader-on-a-balcony authority; it's about getting the masses to believe that only certain behaviors are acceptable, and getting them angry at anyone who refuses to act in a traditionalist way. The questioners in the Democratic YouTube debate were sometimes a bit insolent and not always properly groomed. A true modern Republican leader can't tolerate being sassed at by a person like that; it would be like the Generalissimo of a banana republic allowing a peasant to mock his epaulets and riding crop.

Giuliani and Romney, in particular, are trying to project an aura of contempt for the scum who disagree with them. They can't risk losing that sadist-headmaster aura by deigning to give a hearing to degenerates and weirdos.