When this happened, he didn't run away, unlike John F. Kerry (seen beating feet down the steps of the capitol as fast as he could go.)
Hillie must really be worried about Rudy running to attempt the character assassination this early.
Beyond the demonstration of leadership on 9/11, Rudy has a record of performance as mayor of New York. When he entered office the city was a third world country. Dirty, dangerous, out-of-control. He saved New York, which was no small task.
The funerals, yes, I will give you. He did well there, but it's also more of a "comportment" thing, rather than substance. For example, Dems have criticized Bush for not attending many WoT funerals. If I could change either that or (for example) his amnesty proposal, I'd have no trouble saying that amnesty is far more important.
As for "held the city together when people were panicky," sorry, no, I won't give you that one. I was living here, then as now. There was remarkably little panic. The strongest emotion, of course, was sorrow at the losses. There was also an unusual feeling of solidarity, of "we're all in this together". There was nervousness and uncertainty about the future. I really don't think any of these attitudes were greatly affected, for good or for ill, by anything Giuliani did.
I'd forgotten about the Saudi check. Frankly, though, I see that as of a piece with the other stuff. Rudy's always been good at media manipulation. This book, though, seems to land some hard punches right on the rationale for his candidacy. I look forward to reading it. If there's real merit to its criticisms of Giuliani's competence in matters of substance, then his prospects will be seriously damaged. Without his 9/11 aura, his resume wouldn't have him on anyone's short list of 2008 prospects, in light of all his negatives.
You or any ordinary citizen could have done all of the things that you mentioned and more. You could have baked cookies between funerals and passed them out. No disrespect to the ones that we lost is intended.