Giuliani’s ‘weirdness factor’

Several years ago, Rudy Giuliani asked his staff to put together a “vulnerability study,” which would highlight potential weaknesses on the campaign trail. The report identified plenty of flaws, but highlighted Giuliani’s “weirdness factor.” It was an interesting choice of words — Giuliani’s own aides seem to realize that their boss is just odd.

This “weirdness factor” came back into play late last week, when Giuliani took a cellphone call from his third wife during a nationally-televised speech to the NRA. A rival campaign quickly distributed another clip of Giuliani pulling the same schtick.

And today, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, one of the most consistently conservative outlets in the country, noted that the former NYC mayor is pushing the “limits on odd behavior.”

This was no emergency call. His cell phone rang in his pocket during his speech, which is itself unusual; most public officials turn theirs off during events, if only out of courtesy for the audience. Mr. Giuliani went on to answer it and carry on a routine “love you” and “have a safe trip” exchange with Mrs. Giuliani while the crowd (and those of us watching on C-Span) wondered what in the world that was all about.

His campaign aides spun the episode as a “candid and spontaneous moment” illustrative of the couple’s affection. We might believe that if we hadn’t heard stories of similar behavior by Mr. Giuliani as he has campaigned around the country. During one event in Oklahoma, we’re told he took two calls, at least one from his wife, and chatted for several minutes as the audience waited. That episode followed Mr. Giuliani’s eye-popping disclosure earlier this year that, if he’s elected, his wife would sit in on Cabinet meetings. He later downplayed that possibility. […]

“That was just weird,” one NRA audience member told the New York Post about the phone interruption. Mr. Giuliani doesn’t need more weird.

That’s true, he doesn’t, but the examples keep piling up anyway.

The NYT’s Clyde Haberman reported on the presidential hopeful being an “oddball.”

New Yorkers are well acquainted with at least one other version. That would be Rudy the loopy. The weirdness factor, as some have called it, is as much a part of the Giuliani package as 9/11, banished squeegee men and shuttered porn parlors….

The cellphone routine was not Mr. Giuliani’s sole icky moment last week. While rattling the cup in London, he told reporters that he was “probably one of the four or five best-known Americans in the world.” Oh? And who, someone asked, also makes that rarefied list? “Bill Clinton, Hillary,” he replied before aides hustled him away.

Offhand, we can think of any number of Americans who might be more famous worldwide. President Bush, anyone? How about Muhammad Ali, Madonna, Michael Jordan or Oprah Winfrey?

The real revelation was Mr. Giuliani’s sense of his own importance. It was on display again in his N.R.A. speech. Freshly returned from London, he told the audience, “It’s nice to be here in England.” Then, seeing an American flag, he said, “Ah, America.”

He meant it as a joke about the mental scrambling that the rigors of campaigning can cause. But the underlying assumption was that people were so focused on him that they knew his travel schedule by heart. Many in the audience didn’t get it.

They found it weird, just as some New Yorkers did when Mr. Giuliani used to begin speeches with raspy imitations of Marlon Brando as Don Corleone — as if everyone knew “The Godfather” as well as he did. Often enough, people wondered if he had a sore throat.

The weirdness factor has a long history. It kicked in hard several times with the mayor’s cross-dressing skits, including one time when he squealed in delight as Donald Trump nuzzled his fake breasts. It turned up in 1999 when he joked to a black audience, of all groups, about the hard time he had getting a New York taxi to stop for him.

It emerged when he told reporters that he was leaving his wife — his second wife — before he bothered to tell her. It resurfaced a few months ago when wife No. 3 allowed that this was her third marriage and not her second, as she had let everyone believe for years.

Andrew Sullivan described Giuliani today as something of a megalomaniac: “[I]f this guy has this big a head and this major an attitude before he’s president of the United States, imagine what we could have in the Oval Office. If you think Bush doesn’t listen to advice, has a Napoleon complex and is unable to concede error, then wait for Giuliani. He’s Cheney without the humility and grace.”

Ladies and gentlemen, your Republican frontrunner.