The very polite Matt Bai on Giuliani

Matt Bai's profile of Rudy G. on the cover of the NY Times Magazine is really a piece of work. He tries to get the candidate to answer some tough questions about exactly how he'd fight terrorism, and he's not fooled by the fact Giuliani keeps avoiding straight answers and spins off into directions that feel more comfortable to him. But ol' Matt sees Rudy out amongst The People, and gosh darn it, the guy really comes across as assuring!

Well, Matt knows there are a lot of questions out there about Rudy's competence when it comes to making preparations to fight terrorism, and Matt certainly raises them...at the end of his article anyhow. Just stand back and admire how he deals with Rudy's critics, who rightfully note that:

...a series of serious managerial errors that contributed to the tragedy of Sept. 11: radios that didn’t operate properly or work between departments; an emergency command center inexplicably located inside the towers complex itself; top police commanders acting as Giuliani’s security detail when they should have been coordinating with fire chiefs. All of this is hindsight, of course, the kind of uncharitable, after-the-fact scrutinizing that might be done of any leader in a crisis.

Yes, let us not be uncharitable. And isn't it amazing that even at this point down the road from 9/11, having the command center in the towers remains "inexplicable"? Some things just remain a mystery, I guess. Matt merely shakes his head and notes Giuliani has never had to answer these criticisms. And far be it for Matt to pursue those answers. Because to do so, Matt seems to think, just wouldn't be polite.