>It is the unprincipled approach to politics exhibited by YOU that will lead to a "President Hillary".
So now, an approach to politics that involves looking towards the candidate I feel is most qualified, instead of the one that 'traditional conservatives' like best because he tows their line on their issues, is unprincipled.
An approach to politics that involves thinking that the most qualified candidate just might be the guy who turned around NYC. Eh, I guess that's small potatoes, so far as an accomplishment goes, now, isn't it. So much so that so many who know so much are so willing to assign the credit to people who don't deserve as much of it as they may believe.
An approach to politics that involves thinking that the guy who brought the welfare rolls down to four or five hundred thousand, from well over a million, just might be the most qualified candidate.
An approach to politics that says that George Allen, Mike Pence, Tom Tancredo, John McCain, and Condoleeza Rice put together might well have not been able to do what this guy did. Who could've, besides Reagan? Maybe a guy named LaGuardia, but he'd been the last guy to do it. And while I don't remember the exact statistic, I think the murder rate went down something like 65% during Giuliani's mayoralty, which I don't think can be said for LaGuardia, and is an absolutely astonishing figure that, for me, trumps anything any of the people I mentioned have managed to accomplish combined.
I like all the carping about how awful the shape of the city he left for Bloomberg, who, despite how far he himself leans left, has managed to continue what Rudy started, for the most part, even with his FAR more liberal views & approach.
Think about this--you think Rudy's a liberal? Bloomberg is FAR more so, yet he was left a city that even his liberal policies are working for. Then again, he's no Dinkins, and he actually did something with his life. Still, it probably would've taken a Dinkins years to run this city back into the ground after the progress Giuliani made, and, in Bloomberg's fifth year, what Giuliani achieved has NOT been given back to the liberals.
But, that speaks to what I mentioned earlier, about CHANGING MINDS. People around here don't WANT the realities of the Dinkins era to return--ever. They see & understand the difference, and it was Giuliani who managed to change minds.
Not Tom Ognibene.
Again, for those who don't like Giuliani & his many foibles, or simply can't vote for him in good conscience, I certainly have no problem with that. But I focus my attention on the aspects of whether or not he's a qualified candidate, as defined by me, and even if you think that's an unprincipled way to go about it, it still reveals a range of accomplishment that I think a lot of people simply aren't familiar with. Either that, or they're so concerned about gays that they're not interested in results.
Like the results this guy achieved here, which NOBODY thought remotely possible. Or the bravest face anyone had, when the strongest among us lapsed into weeping, following 9/11. Meanwhile, I have confidence that his judicial choices would be far sounder than some here seem to think. But I don't base that on their hyperbole or remarks that clearly don't relate to the running of an entire country...only its largest city.