Posted on 01/31/2007 8:47:58 AM PST by Reagan Man
Rudy Giuliani runs for President, if he runs, from the same place where George Bush still tries to run his war in Iraq - from the rubble and ashes of Sept. 11.
Giuliani doesn't run from any city he still governs, or any state, or even from the U.S. Senate. He runs from a place called Sept. 11, and you would, too.
Giuliani runs, if he runs, from a job to which he was never elected, just appointed. Or perhaps anointed. It's the job of America's Mayor, and it is the best job he is ever going to have, one with which he can have a longer run than a Supreme Court justice if he plays his cards right.
When you are the mythical mayor of America, instead of a declared candidate for the Republican nomination for President of the United States, it means nobody wants to talk about what kind of mayor of New York City you were before Sept. 11, 2001. That is a real good thing for Giuliani.
There are a lot of reasons why Giuliani should quit while he is ahead in some of the polls, but the best is this: the inevitable collision between some of the myths that have grown up around him in the last six years and the facts.
If the other guys in the race just let him run on Sept. 11, let that be the only thing in play - "It really is all people see," one veteran Democrat said last weekend in New Hampshire - then he wins the nomination. Only it doesn't work that way, not in a world where everything is in play, and where the whole process, with each passing election, becomes dumber than Britney Spears.
The only thing Giuliani has run since leaving office is the booming franchise of Giuliani. He has written a huge best seller and made a small fortune giving speeches all over the world. He has run a lucrative consulting business, one that enables him to fly down to a place like Mexico City for a few days, explain to them how they can reduce the crime rate and then he pockets big change.
Only now he sounds as if he is talking himself into making a run for the nomination it is hard to see him ever getting, one that is hard to see him ever getting from the yahoos in his party, even if he is ahead in some polls the way Hillary Clinton is ahead, mostly for being famous.
But Giuliani ought to ask himself how he gets the nomination of a right-wing, red-state party with his positions in favor of stem-cell research and gun control and gay civil marriages and abortion. If he really does make his run, how do those views play on the Dick Cheney news channels, or in the Church of the Religious Right?
Giuliani ought to ask how long he will be on the stump before everybody starts banging away at him with Bernard Kerik, his police commissioner and former business partner, someone Giuliani thought would be a tremendous head of Homeland Security after turning the job down himself. Kerik is another one who wants you to think he cleaned up crime in New York City all by himself, another guy with a badge who thought the law applied to everybody except him.
Kerik will be in play the way Giuliani's second wife, Donna Hanover, and the way she found out about the breakup of her marriage on television, will be in play. So will the whole subject of race relations in the city during Giuliani's time running it. And even the conditions under which the rescue workers worked at Ground Zero.
Did Giuliani find the best in himself during those first days after the planes flew into our buildings? He did. He did his job and, in doing that job, got carried along by the best in the city, as if he was one of the ironworkers who came walking over the bridge from Stuyvesant High School that first afternoon, coming from everywhere, carrying their tools in leather bags, the ones who told the police, "We're here to work."
And when the police asked them how that day, the ironworkers said, "We cut steel, you're gonna need us." And kept walking towards the ruins of the World Trade Center.
When people see Giuliani now, they see that. They see it all, with Giuliani in the foreground. They see the city getting up, slowly at first, then defiantly. The life of the city changed forever that day. So did Giuliani's. No longer was he a man with a complicated life running the world's most complicated city. He was seen as a hero.
America's Mayor. He runs, if he runs, from there. And if it was only that, if how you did that day and in the days to follow, he wins. It isn't the only issue. There are a lot of them with Rudy Giuliani and always were and always will be.
He never ran for the Senate in the end; he never ran for governor. Now the yes-men he's always had around him tell him he can get the nomination for President. It would be easy if it were all Sept. 11, 2001. The problem for Giuliani is Sept. 10.
I asked the Admin Moderator to remove my statement. My apologies to all who were offended.
Giuliani does not have the same affect or effect.
I notice the continued persistence in asking us who we will vote for. Their candidate isn't even in the race, but they expect us to commit to him anyway. Can you believe this?
Maybe it's the emotional connection they made with him on 9/11. Women do tend to vote on emotion.
My brother lived in NY during the Rudy years, and he's in awe of him. Rudy's the real deal.
ALL candidates running for elected office are subjected to scrutiny. The good, the bad and the ugly parts of their political record are open for analysis and evaluation. Its time some people faced reality. Rudy is the wrong man to be the GOP standard bearer in 2008.
Has Bob Saget announced his candidacy? Rudy hasn't.
Only to liberals and conservatives who've lost their minds.
You "forgot" to credit the author of this article is Mike Lupica, a sports writer.
Rudy is only "moderate" in comparison with current Democrats. He's a liberal by any rational measurement.
That said, if he's the candidate, I'll vote for him. Which is more than I can say about McCain.
Okay, Mike Lupica is the messenger. Fine. So whats the problem? Its a pretty blunt assessment and truthful. Now address the issues, not the author. What is so great about Rudy Giuliani that makes him presidential material? What makes him such a good choice as the GOP standard bearer in 2008? Rudy`s liberal record is the issue. Not Mike Lupica.
Okay, after four posts, do you have anything relevent to offer about the issue, Rudy Giuliani`s liberal record. Or is your intention to spam the thread with juvenile crapola?
It's not my fault you were too lazy to read post 28, which I addressed specifically to you.
The thrust of this article is that Rudy Giuliani`s entire life is locked in the time frame of 9-11.
Which is a false thesis. His national fame comes from the exposure he received on 9/11, but his consulting business is predicated on his successful anticrime and quality of life initiatives which he formulated and implemented well before 9/11.
His claim to consideration for office is his wildly successful eight years as chief executive of a city with a population larger than the population of 38 US states.
He probably thinks that if somebody can run for President on the strength of being governor of Arkansas - a state with a population the size of Brooklyn, one NYC's five boroughs - he can run for President on the strength of being mayor of NYC.
ALL candidates running for elected office are subjected to scrutiny. The good, the bad and the ugly parts of their political record are open for analysis and evaluation.
Precisely. Which is why there is no reason to just make stuff up.
The author of this piece has to dismiss Giuliani's pre-9/11 record as mayor without discussing it, because if it were actually discussed it would make Giuliani look great.
Its only a hit piece if you support Rudy.
No, it's a hit piece because it is void of substance and contains lies.
I freely admit that I think Giuliani was a good mayor, but I certainly don't support him for President.
Rudy is the wrong man to be the GOP standard bearer in 2008.
Of course he is. He's just an out-and-out leftist on social policy.
I'll vote for McCain. If he wins the nod, I'll surely vote for him over any Dem. WOT is my #1 issue and McCain has been pretty steadfast on that.
I'm such a one-issue guy, I'd even vote for Joe Lieberman.
Obviously, Lupica struck a nerve with you Rudy-Rooters. The issue remains Rudy Giuliani`s liberal politics. This article spells out in no uncertain terms that Rudy has been an empty suit for the last five years. After leaving NYCity with a pre-9/11 deficit of $2-billion and a $42-billion debt, Rudy went on to make millions of dollars off of his media performances in the aftermath of 9-11. He's written books, made hundreds of speeches and received many awards. Does that qualify Rudy to be POTUS? I think not. I say NO. What do you say?
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