EDITORIAL - In a recent opinion piece – “Can Rudy Replicate Ike?” – Dr. Charles Dunn makes the audacious claim that Giuliani is virtually an Eisenhower clone, and as such, will experience similar success in his quest for the presidency.

“In 2008, could Rudy replicate General Eisenhower’s 1952 victory?” Dunn rhetorically asks. He then provides several examples of alleged resemblance between Eisenhower and Giuliani. A close view of the evidence, however, indicates that Rudy and Ike are so different, so dissimilar, that such a comparison is, in a word, preposterous.

“First, Giuliani, like Eisenhower, stands out as an authentic hero as a leader during a major crisis,” writes Dunn. On its surface, the statement is true – but when one compares, one must also contrast. After the tragic events of September 11, Giuliani criticized bin Laden, praised America, and coordinated the police and fire response –noble deeds, no doubt.

But can it truly be compared to Eisenhower’s development and execution of Operation Overlord? On that fateful day in 1944, Eisenhower, along with three million men, staged the largest amphibious assault in history. Under Eisenhower’s supervision, the Allied forces dropped 76,000 tons of bombs on rail centers, bridges, and open lines important to Nazi Germany. The campaign was a success: An up-until-then impenetrable Germany had been damaged, Paris was ultimately liberated, and Eisenhower reserved his prominent place in history.

Rudy chastised global tyrants from home; Eisenhower defeated them in the field. Can anyone seriously disagree with the claim that one man’s fame was more deserved than the other’s?

Elsewhere, Dunn states that “charisma’s political twin, popularity, fits like a glove with Eisenhower and Giuliani.” Unquestionably, Ike and Rudy are both popular – but how was this popularity attained? What did these men do to reach stardom?

Honorably, Giuliani served as a United States prosecutor before earning two terms as New York mayor. Ever since 9/11 and his designation as “America’s Mayor” and TIME Magazine’s 2001 Person of the Year, Giuliani has traipsed around the United States speaking anywhere and everywhere possible (including the 2004 Republican National Convention). His ostensible goal? 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Eisenhower was little more than a boy from Abilene, Kansas who loved his country. Ike exhibited profound commitment to the U.S. Army; having graduated from West Point in 1915, Ike persevered until he attained an active command post some 30 years later. The rest, as they say, is history. Even after his World War II wins, Eisenhower was apprehensive to pursue the presidency. “He emphatically denied [wanting to seek the presidency], in his private conversations with his family, the gang, his other intimate friends; he denied it in his private diary; he denied it in his correspondence; he denied it in every public utterance he made on the subject,” writes Stephen Ambrose in his Eisenhower biography. Eisenhower would not decide to run until being shown a video made by hundreds of friends and supporters. The presentation brought him to tears.

Ike and Rudy are both popular; but who came upon it more unassumingly? Who sought it out, and who earned it?

In his column, Dunn also argues that Giuliani and Eisenhower are alike for their moderate political stances. He is correct, for neither Giuliani nor Eisenhower can be classified as the “conservative’s conservative” – but what matters is not if they were moderate, but how.

In various statements, Giuliani has revealed himself to be pro-abortion (praising partial birth abortion), pro-homosexuality (calling it “good and normal”), and pro-illegal immigration (supporting a “virtual fence” over a proven material fence). In other words, Giuliani is a social liberal.

While Eisenhower was certainly liberal on the issues of taxes, government size, and Social Security, he was socially intact. Ike actively opposed homosexuality, and signed the legislation putting “under God” in the Pledge. Additionally, he presided over a 1954 anti-illegal immigration campaign through which, in a year’s time, 80,000 illegals were deported and 500,000 fled the country on their own.

In a broad sense, Eisenhower was, and Giuliani is, a centrist. But Eisenhower, unlike Giuliani, was conservative on all the right things. The social issues will always have more appeal to voters – particularly the GOP’s prominent Evangelical base – than the bread-and-butter.

Ike and Giuliani cannot possibly be compared, for deep down, they are monumentally different from one another. “Any man who wants to be president is either an egomaniac or crazy,” Eisenhower famously remarked.

To which of these categories does Giuliani belong? We had best figure out before it’s too late.