GIULIANI FAILS TO BITE HEAD OFF LIVE BAT, GETS CREDIT FOR EMOTIONAL STABILITY

Here's Charlie Rose at the Huffington Post, talking about last night's show:

In a thoughtful interview, GOP frontrunner Rudy Giuliani talks about his executive experience, his policies about abortion and his response to terrorism. He also talks about his love for his third wife, Judith Giuliani.

And in a surprising statement, Giuliani, who has a long-standing reputation for being thin-skinned, said that the press scrutiny is not only expected but welcome.

Oh, please. Why is this a surprising statement? Any candidate would say that, including the thin-skinned ones. Especially the thin-skinned ones, just as a way of insisting that they're really not thin-skinned.

Rose seems surprised that Giuliani is open to scrutiny and is "thoughtful." Well, of course he is -- until someone challenges him or disagrees with him in any way. Then, as every New Yorker knows, he goes nuclear, regarding the person who challenged him as a lifelong enemy.

George W. Bush is like this, too, and Rose is making the same mistake everyone made (and some people still make) with Bush -- Rose thinks that if Giuliani isn't a snarling pit bull all the time, then he must really be a nice guy who plays well with others. Bush is very nice to people who agree with him. Giuliani is nice to a softball-pitching interviewer like Charlie Rose. But Bush is nasty to his enemies. And so is Giuliani.

Do people like Charlie Rose know anything about human nature? Do they really think all nasty people are like cartoon villains, i.e., nasty all the time?

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And while we're on the subject of Giuliani and the media, I don't think The New York Times really makes the case that Roger Ailes specifically is the reason that Giuliani has appeared on Fox News so much this year, even though Ailes and Giuliani are old friends (Mayor Rudy officiated at Ailes's wedding). I think it's more likely that Giuliani's just an excellent fit with Fox because he's a right-wing Republican.

The article makes clear that Rudy is a particular favorite of Sean Hannity; Hannity, of course, is a Long Island-bred Catholic-school boy who pretends to be a nice guy but is really a snarling GOP attack dog -- just like Giuliani.

I'd be more impressed with the Ailes thesis if a chart accompanying the Times article didn't reveal that Fox gives huge amounts of face time to the likes of Tom Tancredo, Mike Huckabee, and Duncan Hunter. Oh, and Fred Thompson, too -- apart from the network that broadcasts his TV show, Thompson has appeared only on Fox, and he's done so for nearly as many minutes as Giuliani.

(That's a reason I don't think Thompson can win this thing, by the way -- he doesn't appear to be trying very hard. He seems to think he can win by just reaching out to his fan base.)