Posted on 02/05/2006 9:40:12 AM PST by paul in cape
New York's celebrity senator, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, generates near-constant buzz about a possible 2008 presidential bid. The outgoing governor, Republican George Pataki, has been making campaign reconnaissance trips to Iowa, site of the first-in-the nation presidential caucuses.
But for former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the road to a possible presidential campaign has shaped up very differently.
The man dubbed "America's Mayor" for his take-charge performance after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has been flying under the media radar, building his businesses and enjoying a prosperous private life while assessing his chances in a crowded and conservative GOP primary field.
Whatever he's going to do, he isn't going to tell us anytime soon," said Steven Cohen, vice dean of the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs and a longtime Giuliani watcher. "He's a very astute politician, and I'm sure he's aware of the problems he has to win the Republican nomination. It's in his interest to keep his options open."
Analysts agree that Giuliani's long record of support for gay rights, gun control and legal abortion could disqualify him as a candidate among the conservatives who dominate GOP presidential primaries. Yet with the memory of his post-Sept. 11 leadership still fresh for many voters, Giuliani has been at or near the top of virtually every national poll of likely GOP presidential contenders, along with his good friend, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
But unlike McCain and many other potential contenders, Giuliani has largely avoided the national spotlight and the political hothouses of Iowa and New Hampshire. His spokeswoman, Sunny Mindel, said Giuliani spends his days promoting his consulting practice and developing his law practice.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I can envision a scenario where I could support Rudy. Please bear with me, and don't flame.
Suppose President Bush gets 2 more SOTU appointments with the retirements of Stevens and Ginsburg. I assume he appoints mainstream conservatives in the mold of Roberts, et.al. We would then have a rock solid conservative court.
Rudy, during campaigning, assures us of continuing in President Bush's mold of appointing strict constructionists, as well as law and order types. Giuliani understands that the War on Terrorism is THE #1 ISSUE going forward. Social issues are pushed to the background, where they belong.
Under these conditions, I could support him.
Funny, at the end of this article the McCainiacs say Rudy could be Sen. McCain's (R-Media) running mate. They don't get it: McCain is hated by conservatives, and I would NEVER vote for him in a primary.
I hope he stays under the radar. The only good to come from a Rudy primary run will be the splitting of the RINO vote, thus making a true conservative a more likely nominee.
Just the fact that you brought up the possibility of a McCain nomination makes me crazy. The GOP MUST understand that if they nominate that back-stabber millions of conservatives will stay home on election day.
Maybe they can convince themselves that they can pick up the votes of turncoat Democrats. I think that will be a hard sell.
Maybe it's getting close to the time to resurrect the Keating Five scandal.
Giuliani needs to be Secretary of Homeland Security, not President. That way we get all of his good qualities and none of the bad.
The big question is reall this: if it comes down to a Hillary vs. Guiliani who takes New York? My guess is Rudy in a heartbeat, a 9/11 heartbeat. And a republican hasn't won New York in some time. And, one only has to look at the 2 major disasters in America 9/11 and Katrina and see how leadership makes a vast difference - Rudy vs. lost in LA mayor nagin and gov Blanco. I believe we're facing harsher days ahead and I strongly recommend "Leadership" written by Guiliani for further understanding of his skills. I would also vote for a strong conservative over Rudy in the primary if one shows up, but if he's the candidate in 2008, then yes he'll get my vote.
ditto, I could go with Rudi due to his leadership. McCain NOT
The security of the Republic is my #1 concern, and because of that, Rudy has my vote should he run. Plus a Rudy nomination, like a Romney nomination, gives the Democrats a *guaranteed* loss because they lose at least one critical blue state.
He's "flying under the radar" because he's never going to be on the radar. By the time January of 2008 rolls around he won't even be a serious candidate.
Let's see guns, abortion, gays. He's probably up to his kneck in fealty to PC. How bout tossing out the death penalty and just join the Democrats, Rudy?
McCain at least just talks liberal. Rudy is one. You think Ford gave us a bad SC justice? Watch what this guy would do.
McCain is worse, seeing that he's genuinely insane.
Anyway, Giuliani as SecHomeSec would be quite nice.
Neither McLame nor Fooliani are going to win the nomination, don't worry guys. In the primaries the conservative candidates are going to get all the dollars and the votes. A liberal RINO like McLame might win New Hampshire but that's about as far as he'll go.
There are a bunch of issues where Rudy and I part ways, but then again: it's the same situation with President Bush, I am in disagreement with more than a handful of issues and GWB's approach to them. But he's my President, I voted for him, and I'll support him. That doesn't mean I automatically rubber stamp everything he says and/or does.
Rudy is a proven leader, he is (IMHO) vastly wrong on a lot of the social issues facing America but on that one issue (terrorism and the WOT) that defines and determines our national survival, Rudy is 100 percent on the mark, and on that basis alone, I could give him my vote.
But Senator McPain?
No way, No how. Ain't gonna happen. He won't get the nomination, and if he did, no way he'll get my vote. He's been too cozy with the Commies in Hanoi, way too cozy with the Commies in Congress, and his bootlicking of his "good friend John Kerry" in the last campaign was enough to make me puke. If we want a RINO for President, there are much better RINOs than McPain.
Go back and look closely at Rudy Giuliani's record as mayor of New York, and you'll find that he has absolutely no credibility to run as a "security of the Republic" nominee.
Dear paul in cape,
"I can envision a scenario where I could support Rudy. Please bear with me, and don't flame."
I won't flame you, but there is no circumstance under which I will vote for Mr. Giuliani, other than this conversion and repentance from his current social liberal positions.
If the Republican Part apparatus is dumb enough to advantage Mr. Giuliani to the point that he actually takes the nomination, then the Republican Party will lose the bulk of its single largest base - social conservatives.
sitetest
How many cab drivers died so that Rudy could kiss up to communist Danny Glover?
I was born in New York City in 1950, and I gladly left in 1980.
Rudy Giuliani is the only politician of either party in my lifetime who said what he would do, and then did it, when everyone else thought it was impossible.
He's got my vote.
Barely two months after the September 11 attacks, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg stated his commitment to preserve the Big Apple as a formal sanctuary for illegal aliens. "People who are undocumented do not have to worry about city government going to the federal government," Bloomberg vowed. This assurance was stunning coming from the new mayor of a city still covered in rubble as a result of foreign terrorists who exploited our lax immigration policies at every turn.
But Bloomberg was simply following in the bipartisan footsteps of his predecessors. New York City's sanctuary policy was created in 1989 by Mayor Ed Koch and upheld by every mayor succeeding him. When Congress enacted immigration reform laws that forbade local governments from barring employees from cooperating with the INS, Mayor Rudy Giuliani filed suit against the feds in 1997. He was rebuffed by two lower courts, which ruled that the sanctuary order amounted to special treatment for illegal aliens and were nothing more than an unlawful effort to flaunt federal enforcement efforts against illegal aliens. In January 2000, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal, but Giuliani vowed to ignore the law. The Twin Towers are gone and Giuliani is out of office, but the city's policy of safe harbors for illegal immigrants stands.
Just think about the implications of this, folks. If Mohammed Atta had been arrested by the police for jumping a subway turnstile in New York City on September 10, 2001, the NYPD would have been absolutely forbidden from checking to see if he had any open INS warrants against him.
You can take this one to the bank . . . this overly-ambitious liberal will never get the GOP nomination for a national ticket.
Sorry, he's still an east coast liberal. Ideologically, he's really a conservative Democrat. Bad choice.
The man dubbed "America's Mayor" ...
America's Mayor?!? -- BULL!
I hate his rotten guts!!!
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