He'll also have prove he can work collaboratively with other politicians. Perhaps he'll give Hillary a helping hand...
Posted on 07/30/2005 5:55:36 AM PDT by Uncledave
With Gipper's game plan, Rudy can win it all
July 30, 2005
BY THOMAS ROESER Advertisement
As I write this I know my fellow social conservatives will get mad: There is no one in either political party who would be a more exciting candidate for president than Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City. I'll tell you his story -- the good and the bad -- and I'll tell you how he can solve his problems with you. And me. Incidentally, as you read, keep in mind the contrast with Mayor Daley.
The good and bad about Rudy is contained in a book, The Prince of the City [Encounter: 2005] by Fred Siegel, a hard-bitten teacher at Cooper Union University. The good: Rudy came into office in 1994 a Republican in a Big Apple that was rotten to the core, steeped with bosses, bagmen and racial arsonists, a hostile "combination of liberal consensus and helplessness [that] made serious policy debate seem irrelevant," and quickly brought in a band of brother prosecutors from the U.S. attorney's office. They gave up millions in private law firm salaries for the fun of working and drinking (after hours) with Rudy. Most never left his side until his two terms ran out in 2001.
Giuliani was an eerily compulsive hands-on manager. If you want to understand him, said an associate, remember that as a Yankee fan he's the guy who keeps score and writes down how each out and each run took place. Just as when he read The Godfather he diagrammed how the mob worked, for relaxation he would sketch on a pad how every department worked. He would explain to the public clearly what he wanted to do: cut the size of government, cut taxes to attract jobs "so people can work," consolidate or cut out city departments, introduce competition to delivery of services and work with the governor [Democrat Mario Cuomo] "to get our fair share of revenue."
He insisted on tough police standards, once jumping out of his limo in Times Square to chase a guy he saw grab a woman's purse. He was heedless of civil libertarians. It seemed like he wanted to offend all interest groups and took the heat, forgetting the polls. Crime in 1995 saw 163,428 fewer felonies, with murder dropping 16 percent in 1996. He trumpeted that work is the best social welfare policy, pushing welfare reform, announcing that 23 percent of the welfare recipients in Jersey City were also receiving New York City benefits. He balanced his budget, fought with Al Sharpton against what he called "racial racketeering," and grinned as he took heat from minority communities.
The bad? Giuliani was ego-driven. He got jealous of his police commissioner, who was getting more favorable press than he, fired him and hired another (who was just as tough). Giuliani's personal life fell into tatters: his first marriage annulled, his second wife was a TV anchor who drove him nuts. He spatted with her, kept public company with a divorcee, came down with prostate cancer, married again. His political career was pronounced over. Then came 9/11.
That tragedy redeemed him. When the first plane hit the north tower, Guiliani ran from the Pinnacle Hotel where he was at a breakfast, shouting over his cell phone that command headquarters should move from 7 World Trade Center to Barclay Street a block away. Good thinking: Just as they evacuated, the plane hit the south tower. The debris was so heavy his command center was inundated. With his cell phone deadened, Giuliani's staff thought he was dead as well, but a janitor found him dazed and led him out through a little-known passage in the basement.
Television captured the man at that moment, stumbling down the street in the smoke, his handkerchief to his mouth, directing his city through uncharted territory, ordering all bridges and tunnels shut down. Courage is the most important virtue, said Churchill: It guarantees all others. As Bush retires, he should be supplanted by a man of this valor.
Social conservatives will oppose Giuliani for his pro-abortion views. It's up to Giuliani to help himself with them, and here's how. As governor of California, Ronald Reagan signed the most permissive abortion law in the country. Rudy, can you hear me? If you want this thing -- this presidency -- you gotta change and mean it. Your marriages we can do nothing about. But your social views have to change. They'll say you're an opportunist, but you have heard that before. You can change. And mean it. We're waiting.
He's also a gun grabber. Was Reagan a gun grabber?
Just what we need. Another gun-grabbing statist that thinks the Bill of Rights is obsolete.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
If he changes his gun graber and pro abortion views he may have a chance. If not he is toast.
I agree.
since it is 2005, I am a candidate too!!
Rudy theoretically could win it. However, it won't sell nationwide in the primaries...
I view Rudy as one of those candidates that would win the election on a national scale, but would lose the primaries preceeding it.
Thoughts the beast does not want you to read let alone consider!
Agree- the primaries are what kill many otherwise good candidates on both sides- not that Rudy would be my first choice.
Mine either.
I wonder if it would be a first (this is another what if), if the two big party candidates came from the same state?
I know Hillary isn't a New Yorker, but that is where she says she lives....
No, Ronnie wasn't a gun-grabber, but he was divorced like Rudy, but Rudy doesn't have rotten kids biting at his ankles...;^)
Giuliani is pro-abortion, pro gay rights, and anti-gun. 'Nuff said?
Try to buy a Class 3 manufactured after 1986...
Pro-abortion---womanizer---can't win the primary.
Since Frist went to the dark side on stem cell research, it's wide open again. I was putting money on Frist to take it. Putting money on Allen now.
Don't sell Rudy short. His three marriages will hurt him. He took on the mob including Gotti and put many of them away. He took a pro-abortion stance in NYC to get elected mayor twice. I predict he will he will swing to the right and support parental notification as well as a ban on partial birth abortion. I'd take him over McCain anyday.
On 9/11 the city was shaken and knocked down. Rudy was the first one up. He insisted on a positive news release every day after that. News of progress, of recovery, every day. We were his after that.
Not only did he tell a Saudi prince to take his money back after it was offered with strings attached that bashed America, but he also once kicked Yasser Arafat out of a Lincoln Center function for New York City to which the Mother of All Terrorists had not been invited
Go Rudy !
Juliani is a liberal Republican who believes in abortion and gay marriage etc. I can not in good conscience vote for him although I like the guy.
No and Hell no.
If he's anti-gun and pro-abortion, why is this guy any different than little richie daley and the rest of the dems?
That's my thinking as well- I'd rather have Rudy ten times over than McCain.
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