NORTH CONWAY, N.H.— The radio station around here has a popular morning feature called Talk of the Towns, and in the past week the talk of the towns has been Rudolph Giuliani’s injury in an automobile accident.

Preliminary reports indicated he suffered a fractured vertebra, was treated in a hospital, and was released on Labor Day. Although Mr. Giuliani is going to be skewered in the coming paragraphs, I join the good wishes for his recovery.

A country like ours needs figures like Mr. Giuliani, though for his courage at junctures like the 2001 terrorism attacks that took down the Twin Towers in New York, not for his comic-opera descent into Trump sycophant. But in that latter role, he revived a long-dormant — and much under-appreciated — tradition of colorful bumblers and dissemblers th

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