Election deja vu: Is trump the new Giuliani?

• Author: Krayewski, Ed
• Position: Follow-Up - Donald Trump and Rudolph Giuliani

Eight years ago, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani enjoyed a handsome lead in Republican presidential primary polling. This September, real estate mogul and reality TV celebrity Donald Trump had an even more commanding lead, despite a larger field of candidates.

As David Weiget reported in "The Liberal Candidate," reason's December 2007 cover story, Giuliani's interest in politics was first sparked watching Robert Kennedy, then a lawyer, questioning Teamster president Jimmy Hoffa at a 1957 Senate hearing. By 1964, as a Bobby-inspired Democrat attending Manhattan College, Giuliani was writing columns railing against Republican presidential nominee Barry Goldwater, whose view of government he found "cold hearted" and "standoffish." Later, at the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, he made a name going after Wall Street types. "Giuliani's office was relentless," Weigel wrote. "Feds appeared at the offices of indicted traders to put them in handcuffs, marching them to court as their colleagues gawked."

Giuliani learned to play the media in his bid to build a public image that he could sell to voters. After he left the U.S. attorney's office in 1989, The New York Times wrote that New Yorkers had "seen enough to hope that one day he'll return to public service." That was the year Giuliani...