Uncle Rudy Guiliani: Trump’s breakout star

Rudy Giuliani (74 years) is two years older than Donald Trump (72 years) and a fellow New Yorker. Rudy’s age makes him a perfect mentor to Trump. Or just the perfect wing man.

Rudy’s role for Trump seems more bomb thrower than legal advisor. 

Rudy goes out for media interviews and drops the bombs. The bombs reveal some truth about Trump’a actual behavior. Like a defense attorney, he offers his client’s misdeeds before the prosecutors can get to make the accusations:

·     Donald Trump did pay off the Playboy girlfriend…. No big deal!

·     Michael Cohen does have tapes. No big deal! Wait that is a big deal. Cohen's a scumbag.

·     Trump  involved in the Russia meeting at Trump Tower. No big deal!

·     Even if the President colluded, it’s not a crime. No big deal!

Giuliani's rambling, drunk uncle style of communication, is strangely reassuring. I grew up in New York. I recognize the bombastic, circular storytelling of the eccentric relative. Somehow Rudy's rambling narratives feel a little like a TV version of a fireside chat. Giuliani is no FDR but he has some legendary exploits on his resume that make him a venerable, if not always loved, figure. 

Rudy’s Legend

Rudy is the guy who:

·     Took on the Mafia as a prosecutor.

·     As mayor, is often credited with curbing crime in New York City. His “broken window policy” locked up small time offenders and returned law and order to the city.

·     The 9/11 attacks with Rudy Giuliani marching around downtown New York with a dust mask over his face and bringing a sense of calm in the tragedy’s aftermath.

Rudy has the brash style of a New York City, not unlike his boss in the White House. Who could have guessed that the sweet, silent majority of the Flyover States would embrace a cabal of New York City characters? 

The top of the New York heap is—

1) Donald Trump, real estate developer and insult expert

2) Rudy Giuliani, former crime-buster, now flaunts the law and criticizes the FBI and Justice Department.

If I didn’t know better … the spin coming from Rudy Giuliani sounds vaguely like Norm Crosby, the famous double talk comedian. Norm also felt like a dose of normalcy in a world gone mad. 

Norm Crosby revealed day-to-day reality as an illusion. Nothing is as it seems, certainly not if this is the new normal kind of political discourse. 

Rudy now tap dances like a vaudeville hoofer. He doles out spoonfuls of truth  in the middle of Trump's hail storm of lies and distortions. Rudy has been so effective adding to the haze around Trump that the Donald seems content to give him tons of TV time. 

Rudy is the breakout star—the Fonzie of Happy Days in the White House.  

Rudy, like Trump, worked the New York streets and media scene for years. Trump respects that media wisdom and gives Rudy a forum and  his very own screen time. Rudy has a breakout hit in Season 2 of The Trump White House Reality Show. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is the other big breakout star.

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Rudy's detractors make a mistake if they underestimates his media performance. Rudy knows the TV cameras. 

The left finally realizes Trump's ability to weave an "emotional narrative" resonates with voters-- even if his is a hate-filled story. The left needs to learn some storytelling skills with maybe a warmer message. Meantime Trump and Rudy run the airwaves like a bull in a china shop.