Jonathan Chait has a great profile up on TNR of the Republican tough-guy mystique, the popularity contest that appears to be propelling Rudy Giuliani to the front of the ‘08 Republican field:

Giuliani isn’t really saying he has the most expertise fighting terrorism. (After all, he has never held office beyond the municipal level.) Rather, he’s trying to conjure the glow that Bush himself had in the days after September 11. Bush, his adoring fans used to say, “got it.” To “get it” meant you had some metaphysical understanding of the war that transcended—indeed, was largely incompatible with—any actual knowledge.

…

So, while Giuliani’s boast may be absurd by my standards—he thinks he understands the war on terrorism better than, say, Joe Biden?—by Republican standards, it’s simply obvious. Giuliani may not have any expertise as a war leader, but he excels at acting like one.

Ditto for Fred Thompson, whose large appeal over the Republican base stems not from his record as a mediocre one-and-a-third term Senator, as Bob Novak recently pointed out, but from his reputation as a tough talking, take-no-shit prosecutor, a role he is currently playing on television.

The prospects of a Rudy Giuliani nomination, something that once seemed so far fetched, is now feasible enough to be fundamentally depressing. Up until Rudy’s rise I’ve been able to console myself with the understanding that, no matter who wins in ‘08, at least the following four years will be better than the previous eight. Then comes the shit-kicking juggernaught of Rudy Giuliani, a man every bit as corrupt, uncurious and blindly hyper-masculine as the current disaster inhabiting the oval office.

Who could have ever thought the current presidential castrophe could be prolonged another four years?

Kind of brings you back to this again: