Posted on 01/24/2007 8:21:42 AM PST by areafiftyone
SARASOTA - After the two terrorist-flown airplanes struck the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani became known internationally for his effective leadership.
Giuliani was in town Tuesday to talk about that leadership as part of the Town Hall 2007 lecture series presented by the Ringling School Library Association.
He used his book, "Leadership," which he called a guide to becoming a more effective leader, as the basis for the talk.
Before speaking to the packed house of about 1,600 at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, he was asked how he would rate the leadership qualities of President Bush.
"I'm a big supporter of the president," Giuliani said. "He has the quality of setting goals and sticking to them."
He said Bush made the biggest decision of his presidency after the attacks, "to go on the offensive against terrorism," and said going to Iraq was part of that strategy.
"Whether you agree with being in Iraq or not," said Giuliani, a potential Republican candidate for president, "we're there now and a precipitous withdrawal would be a terrible victory for terrorism."
The former mayor and federal prosecutor responded to a question about the 13th Congressional District elections in Sarasota County between Republican candidate Vern Buchanan and Democrat Christine Jennings.
He said it "seemed like Vern won the election," but acknowledged it's hard to explain why people would not vote in a particular race, creating the contested 18,000 undervote.
When told people were wondering about his plans for being on the ballot for the 2008 presidential election, Giuliani said, "I am, too."
He said he has established an exploratory committee, the first step in finding out if there would be support for his candidacy.
During his hourlong speech, Giuliani outlined his six principles of becoming a good leader.
"We learn how to be leaders," he said, explaining how lessons learned during his life helped him run New York City, especially dealing with the personal experience of having prostate cancer.
"You try to relate how to run a business, government or organization with how to deal with a crisis in life," he said, engaging the audience as he walked around the large stage and emphasized his points with hand gestures.
The first of his principles of good leadership was to have a set of beliefs.
"Too many politicians make decisions based on opinion polls," said the popular politician. "They do that to reflect what you think."
He said that was the opposite of leadership. "That's not a leader," he said. "That's an actor."
Expounding on the other principles, Giuliani would illustrate his point with stories of his life.
When talking about the importance of having good communication skills to be a good leader, he said he remembers a lesson from his father.
His father told him attending weddings was optional, but funerals were mandatory, Giuliani said.
"People need more at funerals," he said. "If I was there for them when they needed help, they will be there when I need help."
Giuliani tenets
The six principles Rudy Giuliani said are necessary to make a good leader:
• You have to have a set of beliefs.
• You have to be an optimist.
• You have to have courage.
• You have to take risks, but prepare for them.
• You have to develop teamwork.
• You have to communicate.
Former NYC mayor lays down leadership law in Sarasota stop
I have heard Rudy speak and was appailed. He is a rino and will nto win nationally.
I had no problem with this justification for going into Iraq. Saddam clearly coddled terrorists, and al Zarqawi/al Qaeda was given entrance to Iraq as a base of operations when they were forced to leave Afghanistan.
But if anyone questions these observations, they need to recognize that since the fall of Saddam, Iraq has become THE major battleground for the war on terrorism, as al Qaeda-types and other freelance terrorists have gravitated into Iraq to directly challenge the US presence there. It has actually be a brilliant strategy to fight terrorists in the provinces of Iraq rather than in the cities of the America. Failure in Iraq is not an option. It's sad that so many Americans have slipped back into a mode where all they care about is who the next "American Idol" is going to be, have become "bored" with the war on terror, and have gone back to expecting goodies from the Democrats. Actually, it's more than sad, it's dangerous.
every single fluffly talking point can have the name Kerry, McCain, or AlGore substituted for Rudy Guiliani and still be applicable.
Guliani is a liberal he has done NOTHING and said NOTHING to change that fact.
The ONLY credential he has right now is his accident of being mayor on 9/11.
So, you plan to vote for Hillary?
There are others running and it is still awfully early in this process.
Giuliani leads because he has somehow kept some of his male hormone apparatus intact.
Thanks for the ping
I have seen him speak in public and thouroughly see a typical big government pro-leftist prosecutor turned politician.
Between McCain and Guiliani we have tweedle dee and tweedle dum.
Rudy is just a do nothing RINO giving aid and comfort to the left so they can ratchet further left.
We need a conservative who will not be a contributor to the ratchet effect, we need a person who will push back.
A fluffy former prosecutor does not fit that bill.
It's interesting to observe that the same screen names pop up on every thread about Giuliani to chant their mantras against him. The ivory tower naysayers have been a mainstay on FR every election cycle, but this time around, I'm finding their rhetoric more juvenile than in the past, and more shrill. I pick up a scent of desperation in their rants. It's probably an indication of how likely it is that Rudy will indeed be the GOP nominee.
Each to his own!
I am a pragmatist, and I will proudly cast a vote for Rudy Giuliani if he's the GOP nominee. I voted for him here in NYC (he was the best mayor this city has had in my almost 50 years of existence), and I'd be happy to vote for him again.
Congratulations! That's probably the most idiotic and ill-conceived statement I've read on FreeRepublic in a long time. You want to paint every prosecutor in the country with a brush of incompetence because of one guy?! Rudy successfully went up against the heads of all five of New York's major crime families, won high-profile convictions of white-collar culprits such as Clinton buddy Marc Rich, junk bond trader Michael Milken and Wall Street insider Ivan Boesky. You'd know this if you'd bothered to do any homework at all.
Much of the anti-Rudy rhetoric on FR is just plain idiotic (like the "gun-grabbing" comments -- nobody is threatening to take away your precisious little gun), but you win the prize today.
The "idealists" (both left and right) will stand by and let evil overtake the nation, because they don't get 100% of what they want in a candidate. I used to think of the "idealists" as useless. Now I consider them dangerous to the welfare of the nation and to the safety of us all.
I agree. I'll be interested to see how they all do. Duncan Hunter may catch fire, and that would be great. As I commented earlier, considering that Her Heinous will likely be the Democrat candidate, I'm voting for whomever the GOP nominates, and I'm one of the few on FR who will not attack any GOP contender.
This is very true, People notice something like that!
I guess I am a dangerous idealist then. I will not vote for a Republican who has a record exposing so many of the same views that cause me to vote against Democrats.
One interesting thought. Duncan Hunter and Rino Rudy are the only two of the pack that have any real passonate support on this board.
Romney has his supporters, but you're right that Rudy and Hunter have the most passionate followers. I think it's characteristic of the "split" between idealists and pragmatists. The idealists promote the most conservative option out there. The pragmatists want the one most likely to win, even if that person isn't the most conservative. I've observed politics long enough to know that one never gets everything they want (even Reagan fell short of the ideal, even though he was the closest we've had in my lifetime). I guess that makes me a pragmatist.
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