From Rudy's campaign site:  Bill Simon joins the team as Director of Policy, Economic Advisor Michael Boskin joins too... Former Jeb Bush Campaign Manager Karen Unger in charge of Rudy's Florida Team... Pennsylvania Congressman Charlie Dent announces his support...

After following Rudy's campaign site for over a month, it is apparent that his site lacks any real substance.  He does not respond to critics, he does not outline his policies in any detail, he does not give us anything except a roll call of his campaign staff.  And frankly, I'd expect more from the GOP front runner's official site.  On the other hand, maybe his unwillingness to engage is helping his numbers.

WHAT HIS OPPONENETS ARE SAYING:

Still nothing from his political opponents, but this DVD has been released from his opponents in the documentary industry...

More than five years in the making, "Giuliani Time" investigates the stories behind the "new" New York City that Giuliani laid claim to. From "quality of life" policing to welfare reform and First Amendment-related debacles, the feelings about the Giuliani years largely depended on where you stood. "Giuliani Time" is the story of the effect this former Reagan administration official and high-profile federal prosecutor had on what he called the `Capital of the World." It is a wild ride of political ambition and public amnesia, alternate realities, wars of perception and dramatic, even cataclysmic, events.

NEWS FROM THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA:

CBS News Headline yesterday:  "Giuliani Appears To Be On A Roll, GOP Insiders Say".... these insiders say that Rudy has had a "really good couple of weeks" showing that he is "a charismatic campaigner, very smart, and fully aware that he needs to address the concerns of conservatives that he is too liberal on social issues such as abortion, gay rights, and gun control. His answer: He would appoint conservative judges to the bench, including the Supreme Court, and won't let his liberal views interfere with that overriding objective."

The Journal News, a local newspaper from Westchester County, NY, comments that "'America's Mayor' May Sway Evangelicals After All:"

In the end, leaders like Land may be right and evangelicals will refuse to back Giuliani.

But others clearly want to win, especially against Clinton.

"America's mayor" may be their man.

A New York Times article reports the Christian Right's Search for a 2008 candidate they can get behind because:

Many conservatives have already declared their hostility to Senator John McCain of Arizona, despite his efforts to make amends for having once denounced Christian conservative leaders as "agents of intolerance," and to former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York, because of his liberal views on abortion and gay rights and his three marriages.

The Des Moines Register today ran an article that Rudy has hired a caucus campaign staffer and has plans to visit Iowa soon, adding that "The steps are evidence that Giuliani is moving forward with a plan to compete in Iowa, although other candidates have been visiting and organizing supporters far longer in the state that kicks off the 2008 nominating cycle."  Will he take the ethanol pledge?  Will it matter? According to the article, Giuliani has a lead in the polls there.

Monday's Forbes.com posted an AP article where Giuliani talks about his past as a Democrat and how he switched sides of the aisle over taxes:

"I don't think anything separates us more right now between Republicans and Democrats than how we look at taxes," the former New York mayor said. "What we understand as Republicans is that, sure, the government is an important player in this, but we are essentially a private economy. What Democrats really believe ... is that it is essentially a government economy."

Gallup Poll published on Monday a very detailed statistical analysis of the Feb 9-11, 2007 poll entitled "Giuliani Has Uniquely Broad Based Political Appeal."  A good read, very thorough, and explains the methodology for the poll -- rare in today's media.

The New York Post ran a headline yesterday that said "Policy 101 As Rudy Crams With The Pros:"

Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani is going back to school - with weekly policy briefings from a team of experts who pore over everything from Iraq to tax cuts at his headquarters.

Dubbed "Simon University" by some in Giuliani's camp, the policy team is led by Bill Simon, an associate from Giuliani's Justice Department days and conservative businessman who ran for California governor in 2002.

"It's a pretty small group, and we convene a couple of times a week generally," Simon told The Post, describing the team as a growing work in progress.

NEWS FROM THE FAKE MEDIA:

The Onion, my favorite fake news organization even over The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, put out this article last week.  It parodies his strategy of making himself the Hero of 9/11, and its good for a chuckle or two.

WHAT'S UP IN THE BLOGOSPHERE:

Liberal Blogs

MyDD's report on the new Post-ABC national poll has this to say:

There isn't a single national poll where Giuliani doesn't hold a strong lead right now, and all of the trend lines favor him. And just in case anyone had any lingering doubts as to whether or not conservative, white evangelicals are actually issue voters.

On Thursday, liberal blog Crooks and Liars posted this video clip, from the DVD I referenced earlier, with a headline that says "Rudy Giuliani makes fun of a man with Parkinson's during a radio call"... after listening, there's no way Giuliani could have known that the man had Parkinson's (it was a radio call after all), and Rudy didn't actually make fun of him... he told the caller to stay on the line so he could get psychiatric help. But watch and decide for yourself. This is the liberal spin on the already liberal DVD... and something tells me it's only going to get worse.

University of Nebraska's Omaha College Democrats blog posted an article, under a picture of McCain hugging Bush beside a picture of Rudy in drag, that describes both Giuliani's and McCain's numbers as "soft" and says that Giuliani's support among Republicans (a whopping 84% according to this post) can go nowhere but down.  It concludes with:

And this is the Republicans' pending disaster. Namely: their two leading candidates will not motivate the evangelical base. Rudy Giuliani presents the added bonus of tearing apart the Reagan coalition once and for all. Oh, and juicy scandals. Lots of `em.

Giuliani as the frontrunner may be the best thing that happened to McCain. It gets the target off his back and might make him the "lesser of two evils" candidate for right-wingers. I still can't see Giuliani winning the nomination. We'll see how it all plays out. But it's going to be a bloody, dirty campaign.

The Huffington Post's James Boyce writes that in handpicking who comes to see him at his political speeches (in order to keep "off the cuff real questions" to a minimum) makes him a "coward" not a "hero:"

Could it be he doesn't want anyone asking about why he shipped Bernard Kerik out of the country or about his marriage to his cousin or his decision to put the New York City Command and Control Center next to the World Trade Center against the wishes of the FBI?

Conservative Blogs

Cobb's Strictly Old School blog, a self-described "moderate conservative Republican from the old school of African American culture and values" posted this opinion about Rudy in a well-written piece about a not often heard viewpoint on the right:

So to the extent that a Giuliani candidacy puts the social engineers of the Right on notice that they cannot hijack the party with their vertical issues, it's all good.

Still, I need to hear Rudy say the right things on the war and foreign policy. But you know what, he's a grownup. That's the best thing about him.

... On the other hand, conservative blog The Reality Check's guest writer Selwyn Duke wrote a piece yesterday that brings up several good points about why Giuliani "is a ship that only floats in New York Harbor."  Whether or not you agree with him, this post is full of clever twists of phrase as well as some pertinent facts, such as:

• No pro-abortion candidate has ever won the Republican nomination.

• Nobody who has been in bed with the homosexual lobby has ever won the Republican nomination.

• Nobody who has opposed Second Amendment rights has ever won the Republican nomination.

And some think a man saddled with all three negatives will do so in 2008?

What I find truly amazing is that this reality escapes Giuliani. What is this man thinking? Does he fancy that the average Republican voter is a Times Echo? Talk about believing your own press clippings.

Michelle Malkin reports that Rudy will be attending the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and Captain Ed of Captain's Quarters praises this move:

This is a smart move for Giuliani. He needs to make his debut with conservative groups soon, before a meme of avoidance starts to gain traction. If my earlier experience with Giuliani gives any indication, he'll shine there as he does anywhere he speaks live. Conservatives there will ask tough questions, and I'm interested to see if he decides to engage in a dialogue at CPAC rather than just a speech.