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Yes, praepos is a Rudy retread, this is her very first post on FR under this new name.

Saturday, November 14, 2009 8:08:46 PM · 70 of 125
praepos to livius
You’re wrong if you think Rudy was just conservative on crime and terrorism. He was a Reaganite through and through—and applied Reaganomics to NYC, putting it in the black for the first time in decades, selling off municipal properties, firing useless bureaucrats, drastically lowering taxes and facing-down the racist shake-down artists.

It’s little known but he had always had pro-life sympathies, though he ran as a pro-choicer in order to get elected in a very blue city. As mayor he raised the level of adoptions and cut the rate of abortions considerably. (He was the opposite of Romney, a man with pro-choice sympathies who suddenly converted to pro-life when he sought the GOP nod.) Rudy had no problem at all promising to nominate strict constructionists—because that’s where he was coming from philosophically—as anyone who worked with him in Reagan’s Justice Department already knew.

Here was a guy who as U.S. Attorney made his bones sending Wall Street billionaires to prison. He sent the heads of the Mafia to prison. He sent corrupt NYC Democratic machine politicians to prison. As Reagan’s Assistant Attorney General he knew the law inside out; he knew how the FBI functioned, how the CIA functioned. He understood the terrorist threat from the beginning—and when the time came on 9/11 to be tested, he was ready.

And when the economy blew up in 2008, he would have been just as ready since he understood how high finance functioned. He would have made Obama look ridiculous in a debate since the Democrat didn’t have a clue. But Rudy never had a chance. Republicans were too hung up on the abortion issue—and too enamored of a primary process that was grossly unfavorable. How was a big city blue state Republican supposed to appeal to farmers and evangelicals? He didn’t stand a chance—even though the polls consistently showed him runing five and six points ahead of Hillary or Obama.

Too many GOP purists dissed the one man who could have made a huge difference for America. I remember how it was—you couldn’t even bring up his name on some conservative sites. Yet he was the one genuine reformer who did more than just make fine speeches. He was a man of action, not a big talker. He was by far our best candidate. Now we look back and think, “If only...”

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