In Los Angeles, a city prone to both manmade and natural catastrophes, we don’t make saints out of our politicians when they don’t screw up in the aftermath of a disaster. I guess it’s different in New York.

Other than doing what mayors do when their cities suffer disasters — ie. his job — I will never understand how Rudy became “America’s Mayor.” And I’m even more flummoxed why anyone thinks such a narcissistic, authoritarian jerk should become “America’s President.” But I am notoriously missing the Republican delusion gene.

The biggest head-scratcher is that not screwing up after 9/11 somehow confers onto Giuliani expertise at foreign policy for which there is no other apparent basis. So what are his foreign policy credentials?

Everybody knows the basics. On Sept. 11, 2001, he rolled up his shirt sleeves and gave reassuring speeches. He has a tough guy persona. He expresses extremely strong disapproval for enemies of the United States. (For instance, Giuliani has bragged about asking President Bush to let him personally execute Osama bin Laden.) All this makes Republicans swoon…

If having a macho swagger and talking tough about bad guys were enough to make a good commander in chief, we wouldn’t have the worst foreign policy disaster in U.S. history on our hands right now in Iraq. And, need I remind anybody, one of the reasons Giuliani hasn’t been able to fulfill his Bin Laden execution fantasy is that Bush allowed the Al Qaeda leader to escape at Tora Bora by using Afghan proxies instead of U.S. ground

And then there is this:

Last week, Giuliani said that Lincoln had “that ability that a leader has — a leader like George Bush, a leader like Ronald Reagan — to look into the future.”

There’s that delusional thing again. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Rudy’s outrageous comparison of Bush to Lincoln popping up in a campaign ad before the 2008 campaign is over.