Before Occupy D.C. protesters swarmed the Washington Convention Center on Friday night, Mayor Rudy Giuliani delivered a speech to the free market faithful at the Americans for Prosperity conference. In his speech, he made the case that Barack Obama is responsible for the Occupy protests because of his class warfare rhetoric, his demonization of American business leaders (or more specifically those who don't support his campaigns), and his rhetorical support for the increasingly violent movement has given aid and comfort to the mob. Giuliani also made the case that this mob may take down the Obama presidency.
You can see those comments in the video below, followed by events that took place outside the convention center later that night, when protesters attacked AFP members as they tried to leave the building, injuring several of them (including an 78-year-old woman who was pushed down the stairs and had to go to the hospital for her injuries), barricaded the doors to the convention center, and blocked traffic on the streets—keeping law-abiding citizens with jobs from getting where they needed to be, some of whom can be seen in the video below confronting the protesters. According to the Washington Post, the protesters were also provoking violent altercations with neighborhood's residents throughout the night. And the whole time, the chant mob chanted: "This is what democracy looks like."
One other note on this protest: While Obama, Democrats, and the liberal media have indeed cheered on Occupy Wall Street, the protesters have been mostly independent of the "professional left." However, those lines are being increasingly blurred. This particular protest was organized by Health Care for Americans Now, a group that has received at least $5 million in funding from George Soros, and $25 million from the Atlantic Philanthropies, a foundation based in Bermuda that has funneled millions of dollars of foreign money into the American electoral system through a quirk in American tax laws that allows Bermudans to contribute to 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations which are otherwise barred from accepting foreign funds. Health Care for Americans Now has deep ties to the Obama administration as well. So here you have a Soros-funded group, supplemented by foreign money, organizing an Occupy protest that nearly turned into a riot. And presumably it will take a riot for Democrats and the press to wake up to the threat these protests pose to the communities they've occupied.
Bill Kristol reported that Rick Perry and Rudy Giuliani met earlier today, and urged the potential 2012 candidates to let Fox News know what the two discussed:
The seven candidates on stage performed creditably last night, with two pretty clearly helping themselves—Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann. But since the stage at St. Anselm didn't feature all of the eventual candidates, one can also ask, which potential candidates who aren't yet in the race were helped or hurt?
Is Newt Gingrich getting out? Could be—or maybe you don’t need a staff to run. Is Rick Perry getting in? Why not? Who else combines governing success and Tea Party credibility? What about Rudy Giuliani? He apparently intends to see whether the second time’s a charm. In the Senate Dining Room, John Thune’s getting encouragement to reconsider from some of his colleagues, while Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn are conferring to see if one of them should carry the deficit hawk banner.
I'm told by two reliable sources that Rudy Giuliani intends to run for the GOP nomination for president in 2012. He may throw his hat in the ring soon.
Two 2012 stories today deserve a mention. Both involve, directly or indirectly, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who may run for president in 2012. The first is Huckabee's attack, via his PAC website, on Indiana governor Mitch Daniels. In an interview with THE WEEKLY STANDARD, Daniels called for a "truce" on social issues in order to focus on the nation's finances.
One week from today, Kentucky Republicans will choose their nominee to replace retiring GOP senator Jim Bunning. The results will tell us a lot about the electorate's dyspeptic mood.
The campaign pits secretary of state Trey Grayson against Rand Paul, an eye doctor and son of Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. Grayson has the blessing of the GOP establishment: Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, Rep. Harold Rogers, Mitt Romney, and Rudy Giuliani. Paul has the support of passionate outsiders: his father, Sarah Palin, Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina.
This is just fun TV. Rudy keeps it nice and clean while Scarborough plays bad cop. Scarborough's lines about Huffington's former support of Newt Gingrich and her run for California governor are particularly delicious.
The AP reports that Rudy Giuliani will endorse Marco Rubio on Monday. This endorsement could damage Charlie Crist's attempts to appeal to moderates and independents. The backstory here: Crist reportedly offered his endorsement to Giuliani in the 2008 Republican primary but backed out after McCain convinced Crist that Rudy couldn't win.
There is plenty of pessimism about democracy these days, and autocrats seem to be on the march on every continent. So we should take note when democracy triumphs over autocratic temptations.
That's what happened in Colombia recently. President Álvaro Uribe had hinted for some time that he might run for a third consecutive term, despite the constitution's two-term limit. Last summer Colombia's House and Senate, controlled by allies of Uribe, passed a bill to change the constitution. The next and final step was a popular referendum in May to endorse Uribe's reelection. If that sounds familiar, it should. It was by popular referendum that Venezuela's Hugo Chávez installed himself as a virtual president-for-life. But late last month Colombia's constitutional court rejected the bill. The referendum is dead, and Colombia's democracy lives.
On "Face the Nation" this Sunday, Vice President Joe Biden accused Mayor Bloomberg of NYC of inflating the estimated cost of holding the KSM trials in Manhattan:
