Speaking of Giuliani, Ramesh, I was late to the party watching Giuliani’s Meet the Press appearance on my DVR. But a couple of quick observations:

1) First it was Hillary Clinton and now Giuliani has adopted this ridiculous tic where when asked a tough question they’re compelled to laugh hysterically as if that immediately delegitimizes the question. I expect this kind of thing from Hillary — I’ve seen things roll off the assembly line at Texas Instruments that were less calculated than her campaign. But Giuliani? Russert was really grilling him — and not without reason. Sober responses would have been appropriate, but his response was disconcerting:

Russert: Yesterday a video appeared on YouTube of you in Michael Vick’s backyard, greasing down a Pit-Bull you affectionately referred to as “Bernie,” before throwing a wad of cash down on the ground and sending the dog off to near certain death.
Giuliani: [SLAPS TABLE, GUFFAWS] Oh you slay me, Tim! That dog won’t hunt!

Okay, so I made up that question but you get the idea. I’d like my candidate to be approachable, but they also need to know when to look the voter in the eye and be serious. From now on when a journalist throws a candidate an inside fastball and they laugh in response, I’m automatically assuming they’re hiding something.

2) This police-escort-for-the-mistress story isn’t going away. The reason it’s not going away, is because Giuliani wants to make this about whether it was appropriate to protect those close to him. I think most voters think that the easiest way to avoid this dilemma is not have a mistress. He might want to address that somehow.