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.
" Who are they going to vote for Hillary? He merely needs to win the red states which he will as the default Republican"
This is the dangerous game that the GOP plays. They figure you have nowhere else to go with these RINOs. The GOP takes a big fat steaming dump on it's base in order to pander for hispanic votes.
As far as I'm concerned, there's only one guy I will vote for in 2008, and that's George Allen or someone equally or more conservative. Otherwise, Ill just give the GOP elites the finger and sit on my hands.
Winning more of the citizenry over to our side of the abortion issue is essential: it has nothing to do with being Hilly.
Amen, Bro!
Helloooo....
What's that got to do with how I vote????
What the Hitman is saying is that yelling and raving like a moonbat is only going to HELP the Democrats and the pro-abortionists.
Giving a well reasoned and sensibly given argument as to why Abortion is wrong and the alternatives to it is the way to take all of the ammo away from the Democrats.
In short, don't give them something to bang you over the head with.
In sharing your opinion, you called doctors terrorists. In doing so, you diminish your position and harm the pro life cause because our ultimate success culturally rests with convincing people we are right.
You can't do that as well when you lose credibility.
In sharing your opinion, you called doctors terrorists. In doing so, you diminish your position and harm the pro life cause because our ultimate success culturally rests with convincing people we are right.
You can't do that as well when you lose credibility.
Thanks, Mike. The temp is 89 in Vegas this morning - what's it like in Iraq?
I'll take a big steaming dump on the religious right any day of the week to keep Hillery out of the White House. The religious right needs to take a backseat and keep their mouths shut for a few years so the rest of us can dig the grave and fill it with the democratic party. Otherwise they are going to regroup, reenergize, and destroy all the good that can be done for this country. The only force in this country that can give the Democrats control again is the tendancy of the Republicans to pander to the religious right.
couldnt tell ya :)
I have been home for almost 7 months now :)
probably hot as crap and dusty
as it is 2038 hrs over there, its probably about 110 and Sunny ....
Allegra could tell you...
Keep on truckin', brother!;-)
No idea about taking a dump, sorry. I'm socially very conservative, but also practical. I don't want to take a dump on anyone. (Well, maybe some Islamikazes, but that's it!)
ohh I am....
back to my homework :)
Well...for the most part I am among likeminded people on FR...I'm not trying to convince anyone on this forum.. There is a time for that...and I've been doing that for years at the clinics.
This is a political forum...and I am making a political statement that abortion is murder/terrorism and I will not vote for those who participate in the murder of anybody...nor will I vote for anybody that shields them.
Now you just put your head back in the sand and we'll let you know when it's time to vote...or maybe we won't. :)
What I am saying is the religious right need to shut up about politics until the rest of us Republicans that can keep our mouths shut about religion take back this country. Their continued running off at the mouth about their religious social agenda does nothing but alienate half this country and makes it possible for treasonous fools like Kerry and Hillery to close the gap in the popular vote.
IOW, social conservative issues "don't really matter." I beg to differ. This stuff may not be important anymore where you live, but it is still very important where I live. It's difficult enough to rear children in a traditional family setting while they are subjected to corrosive Hollywood and MTV influences that we can do little to control. But we get it done today, in part, because we can point to President Bush, the most visible public leader in the United States, as a father and husband whose loyalty to his wife is sterling and unquestioned. His example reinforces the example we try to set in our own families.
Similarly, even though Ronald Reagan's first marriage ended in divorce, he always conveyed the impression that fidelity in marriage and loyalty to family were not disposable commodities. One sensed that Reagan was truly heartbroken that his first marriage failed.
I like Giuliani in many ways, but the sense he conveys on social conservative issues is "Whatever. Yawn."
I cannot support such a candidate for President. I might be able to support him if he could honestly and forthrightly recognize social conservative values as being vitally important and preferable to social liberalism even if he has been unable to live up to socially conservative standards personally. But I don't think he believes that. I think he believes social conservatism is a joke, neanderthal, and unhip.
Too bad. He coulda been a contender.
When you raise the level of rhetoric, you lose credibility.
Credibility, once lost, is hard to regain. In some cases, that's a good thing, I suppose.
Be seeing you.
"The only force in this country that can give the Democrats control again is the tendancy of the Republicans to pander to the religious right."
You sound like a DUmmie......are you sure you're on the right site?
Your post also sounds like you have a deep hatred/resentment of the "religious right" as you call it.
I guess you would also refer to our founding fathers as the "religious right"? So much for their original intent, might as well more leftward with moderates like you in the big tent GOP.
When you raise the level of rhetoric, you lose credibility.
Credibility, once lost, is hard to regain. In some cases, that's a good thing, I suppose.
Be seeing you.
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