The NYT’s Adam Nagourney, for one

Mr. Giuliani has created a narrative around his candidacy that presents him as a powerful symbol of national security by stressing his leadership of New York City after the attacks, an image that he augments by pointing to the drop in crime during his tenure at City Hall.

Then, as he should, he points to the weaknesses

At the same time, Mr. Giuliani strays perhaps more than any of his competitors from his party’s base on social issues, as viewers were reminded during the debate on Tuesday when he was challenged for his support for gay rights, abortion rights, gun control and even the re-election of Mario Cuomo, a Democrat, as governor of New York in 1994.

Many students of Republican politics have long been dubious of Mr. Giuliani’s prospects, precisely because of these positions.

Those students of Republican politics may well be right. But the latest Gallup poll tells an interesting story nonetheless—one that suggests (not surprisingly to me, since I said it way back in August 2006*** at a time when McCain was the clear Republican frontrunner+++) that Giuilani is a good crossover candidate.

[T]here has been no significant change in his favorability among independents but [there has been] a slight improvement among Democrats.

For now, it looks like Democrats think they could live with a Giuliani presidency.

On the other hand, it looks like Al Gore may decide to enter the race after all. Doesn’t it?

——–

*** In my vast, bitter anger at the indecency [in Michael Walzer's phrase] of my fellows on the left, here’s what I wrote:

Perhaps Rudy, who is a hundred times as articulate as Bush, who is not only not religious but is demonstrably flawed (divorced, etc.), who is socially tolerant, and who is a formidable debating opponent, will make the perfect foil for the Democrats, who really do need to get their act together. They need to get over being reflexively anti-war, and most of all they need to get over themselves.

+++ Fascinating stuff from an August 2006 Rasmussen poll:

The latest Rasmussen Reports survey finds that 36% of Americans classify Giuliani as a political moderate. Twenty-nine percent (29%) say conservative and 15% liberal. Twenty percent (20%) are not sure.

These survey results place Giuliani three points to the left of the political center.

The political center is calculated by subtracting the number of liberals from the number of conservatives among the general public (35% conservative, 18% liberal for a net +17). For Giuliani, 29% conservative minus 15% liberal equals a net plus 14. The plus 14 reading for Giuliani is 3 points away from the plus 17 reading for the general public.

While most candidates want to be as close to the political center as possible, Giuliani may seek the nomination of a party that is to the right of the political center. Among his own party ranks, 43% consider Giuliani moderate, 31% conservative and 13% liberal. However, many pundits believe perceptions of the Mayor will shift as Republican primary voters learn more about his views on abortion and other issues.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, current frontrunner for the 2008 GOP presidential nod, is seen by 46% of Republicans as moderate. Nineteen percent (19%) say he’s conservative and 19% liberal.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former First Lady—and Giuliani’s “would-have-been” opponent in his abandoned 2002 U.S. Senate race—places 55 points to the left of center.

I can’t tell whose NYT coverage of the ascension of Sarkozy is more breathless, that of MoDo or that of longtime Europe correspondent Elaine Sciolino.

I know! I’ll let you be in judge. In fact, we’ll have a little contest.

Is it Dowd or is it Sciolino?

Dressed in a sleeveless, shiny, champagne-colored dress designed by Prada, Mrs. Sarkozy, 49, and the children lined up for the cameras on the red carpet leading into the palace.

Olivier Laban-Mattei / AFP / Getty

Inside, the Sarkozys made several public displays of affection, squelching the rumors — at least for now — that they were no longer a couple. He kissed her on the cheek under the glare of the television cameras. At another point, he approached her and touched her cheek.

At a celebratory reception after he officially took office as president, she returned the affection. He leaned over to peck her on the cheek, but she turned to face him, planting a kiss on his lips.

Such a display was out of the question during Mr. Chirac’s presidency: he and his wife have such a formal relationship that they call each other “vous,” even in private.

Okay, okay—it’s Sciolino who’s gaga over the Sarko and Cécilia Show. Which is kind of amazing, because she’s a fairly sober reporter. Here’s Dowd yesterday. You can barely tell the difference.

Bound by strict privacy laws, and cozy with the elite ruling class, the French press shies away from printing the skinny on relationships, even though the skinny French public loves gossiping on the subject.

Trying to fathom what is going on with power couples here is like watching a French movie — scenes brimming with emotion and ambiguity.

Cécilia left Sarko for several months in 2005, moving to America to live with a French events organizer — reportedly a response to her husband’s affair with a French journalist.

When Paris Match published pictures of Cécilia with her lover in New York, Sarko became furious with his good friend, Arnaud Lagardère, the magazine’s owner. Soon, the editor was fired.

Mr. Lagardère stepped in again to kill a story in another publication he owns, Le Journal du Dimanche. On Sunday, the paper was going to reveal that Cécilia did not bother to vote.

On the night Sarko won the presidency, Parisians were watching Cécilia’s every move. She was not there when he won or when he made his acceptance speech, and some of her friends were saying that the marriage was over.

But her two pretty blonde daughters from a previous marriage apparently prevailed on her to show up later that night at a victory rally. She came dressed down in a gray sweater and white slacks, in what one friend said had originally been her “escape outfit,” and looked distracted as her husband spoke, plucking at her sweater.

At the post-rally party, Paris Match — now following the Sarko script — was given an exclusive on their happy reunion. They were in a hotel suite, the magazine said, behaving “like lovers.”

“And the new president, regaining for an instant the taste of rhythm that invaded him in his youth, took a step in dance,” the story said. “In front of all their friends reunited, he dances for a single person: Cécilia.”

Hallelujah! fresh meat for the global infotainment grinder!

For those of you who just can’t get enough color commentary:

Mr. Sarkozy appeared oddly ill at ease as the outgoing president guided his inexperienced successor up the steps. Mr. Sarkozy tried to regain the advantage by placing his hand on Mr. Chirac’s shoulder, but the choreography failed to work.

The body language spoke volumes about the tension that has characterized the two men’s relationship over the past three decades, despite efforts to bury their differences in the final weeks. The pair then spent half an hour in a private meeting in which the new president received the nuclear codes that permit him to launch a strike within a minute.

Mr. Sarkozy’s speech was heartfelt, if punctuated by nervous tics and shoulder shrugs that betrayed what his enemies claim is a worrying lack of self-control.

Mr. Sarkozy’s mother, Andrée, sat in a throne-like chair. His once estranged father, Pal, a minor Hungarian aristocrat, was also present. He is believed to have been reunited with his son only very recently. His desertion of the family and reported warning to little Nicolas that he would never amount to much is said to have sparked his son’s burning ambition.

After the pathos, the passion: Mr. Sarkozy planted a kiss on the lips of Cecilia — whose absence during the campaign had fueled rumors that the couple was going through fresh marital problems — and gave her cheek an affectionate squeeze. Then, under the glare of the cameras, it was her turn to surprise him with kiss on the lips. It is not known whether Cecilia and the children will move into the Elysée Palace with her husband.

Meanwhile, however, back at the ranch, dark plots are being hatched:

An Al-Qaeda front group in Europe has apparently threatened to launch bloody attacks in France in response to the election of “crusader and Zionist” Nicolas Sarkozy as president.

A statement posted on the internet on Tuesday purporting to be from the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades claimed the group would soon carry out attacks in Paris.

“As you have chosen the crusader and Zionist Sarkozy as a leader … we in the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades warn you that the coming days will see a bloody jihadist campaign … in the heart of Sarkozy’s capital,” the group’s “Europe division” said in a statement addressed to the French people.

C’est la vie!