Susan Milligan of the Boston Globe reports on the danger that Rudy Giuliani's candidacy will end up being defined by a single issue (9/11, of course) and why such an approach could falter down the road, as voters ask for something more -- for instance, an Iraq war policy.

Particular credit to Milligan for mentioning the fact that here in New York there are a lot of people who consider his claim to 9/11 heroism totally fraudulent. The article actually features a nice juxtaposition, citing out-of-state sentiments like this:

"He took control," said Carolyn Mercadante , 70, a Delaware voter who came to see Giuliani speak. "Just the fact that he was such a presence there" in New York the day of the attacks, said 67-year-old Bill Uranko of Middleton, Del., when asked to explain what impressed him about Giuliani's Sept.11 performance. "You could see he was visibly moved by what happened.

...and contrasting them with the far different things you'll hear from New Yorkers, for instance:

Many firefighters, some police officers, and family members of the victims of Sept. 11 have castigated Giuliani for what they say was poor emergency planning before the attack and a failure to protect workers from poisonous air pollution at the site during the rescue and clean up operation, a charge the Giuliani campaign denies. A New York firefighters' website, fdnyrant.com, brims with vitriolic comments against Giuliani.

The International Association of Firefighters pointedly refused to invite Giuliani to speak with other presidential candidates at the group's annual conference this year, then relented. But, Giuliani didn't attend. Pat Lynch , president of New York City's Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, told NY 1 TV in May that Giuliani "doesn't deserve to be president" because he didn't take care of the police officers who defended the city on Sept.11.

"Everybody bought into the myth" about Giuliani after Sept. 11, said Sally Regenhard , whose firefighter son was killed that day. "All of us, Americans or whomever else, we all want heroes, we all want to be saved by someone -- by Superman, by Moses, by Jesus," she said, adding that Giuliani appeared to be such a savior on the day of the attacks.

But "he's a fraud. What did he do on 9/11? He walked around," said Regenhard, who said she voted twice for Giuliani for mayor.

Indeed, he walked around, dragging his useless, corrupt police commissioner with him as a personal bodyguard, and failing to perform his one, singularly important duty on that day: as Wayne Barrett has reported, Rudy failed to ensure a unified command between the police and fire departments, instead actively leading his police commanders away from the FDNY command post. There is a very good case to be made that the price for this decision was paid in scores of lives. This is to say nothing of the mismanagement and incompetence before and after that horrible day, nor of Giuliani's shameless attempt to exploit the tragedy to extend his own term in office in contravention of the city charter.

Media Matters has documented the media's failure to report 9/11 as it actually happened -- as opposed to how Rudy's PR people wish it had happened. Milligan's article is something of an improvement, but it may be left to the blogosphere to beat the drum until more reporters are willing to deal with the issue honestly.

Cross-posted at The Right's Field.

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