Uniform in Uniforms

Rudy Giuliani is a man who favors uniforms, emblems and gear. They can express both camaraderie and authority: "I am one of you" as well as "I'm the boss of you."

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Giuliani seems intent on relaying the latter message.

Some candidates make a habit of dressing to fit in with their audience. They can't resist a work shirt when they're talking to a union crowd, for instance. Or they like to loosen up with jeans and a sport jacket when speaking to a younger audience. Not Giuliani.

He wore the business uniform of a suit and tie while shopping at Target. He wore a suit to slurp down the local pizza in New Hampshire. This is the man, after all, who wore a suit to a NASCAR pit.

These suit-wearing habits don't appear to be because Giuliani is especially rigid or attuned to grooming. A humorless man would not have dolled up in drag for the amusement of a "Saturday Night Live" audience. And a stickler for a dapper public appearance would not have spent the greater portion of his professional life lovingly aligning each of his surviving locks into a comb-over of titanic proportions.

A suit and a smile provide a screen of civility for someone uninterested in wrapping his opinions in diplomatic niceties or even in grown-up artfulness. During a recent debate, his exchange with Mitt Romney about the former governor having illegal immigrants working in his home sounded more like a playground taunt than evidence in an argument: "You did! You did! You did have illegal immigrants working at your mansion!"

Mostly, Giuliani's fondness for uniforms appears to be his way of distinguishing himself from the hoi polloi. His campaign is selling superiority, after all, not empathy. (His message: We're not all in this together. You're in it, and I'm the only one who can get you out.)

When Giuliani was mayor of New York, he made abundant use of symbolic gear. The right baseball cap or jacket patch could declare his strength, trumpet his rank or telegraph his authority. In times of crisis, he favored a police department jacket. If a blizzard was threatening, some paraphernalia from the city's Office of Emergency Management would suffice. And after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he attached a flag pin to his business suit, where it has remained ever since. He also wears a flag on his overcoat. And on his tuxedo. One wonders whether he wears one on his pajamas, as well.

Giuliani likes gear, perhaps because the guy in the gear is presumed to be the one in charge.

While some people live according to the mantra "question authority," the vast majority of people bend to it. They tend to make superficial assumptions about folks in uniform -- about the ones wearing some official logo or even just carrying a clipboard. They must be knowledgeable, right? They must be in control.

Giuliani's style adheres to this premise: The appearance of authority has almost as much value as the real thing.