Assuming that they have even tuned in to this interminable presidential campaign, many Americans just caught a glimpse of a Rudolph W. Giuliani long known to New Yorkers.

Note that we said a Rudolph Giuliani. There are several versions of the former mayor.

Understandably, he prefers to project the ones that would get any politician dreaming about a spot on Mount Rushmore: Rudy the clear-thinking, Rudy the principled, Rudy the focused, Rudy the unswerving (never mind his recent swivels to the right on issues like immigration, gun control and abortion).

New Yorkers are well acquainted with at least one other version. That would be Rudy the loopy. The weirdness factor, as some have called it, is as much a part of the Giuliani package as 9/11, banished squeegee men and shuttered porn parlors.

Non-New Yorkers got a taste of it the other day when Mr. Giuliani interrupted his speech — a very important speech — to the National Rifle Association in Washington. His cellphone rang. It was his wife, Judith. Smack in the middle of his talk, he whipped out the phone.