As George Will said on “This Week,” “His eight years as mayor of New York were the most successful episode of conservative governance in this country in the last 50 years, on welfare and crime particularly." Giuliani, more than any other candidate (Romney comes the closest) has the record of taking on major institutions and reforming them. Think about tourist magnet that is New York now. When Rudy Giuliani took office, 59% of New Yorkers said they would leave the city the next day if they could. Under Rudy Giuliani’s leadership as Mayor of the nation’s largest city, murders were cut from 1,946 in 1993 to 649 in 2001, while overall crime – including rapes, assaults, burglary and auto-thefts – fell by an average of 57%. Not only did he fight crime in Gotham like Batman, despite being constantly vilified by the New York Times, he took head on the multiculturalism and victimization perpetuated by Al Sharpton and his cohort of race baiters. He ended New York’s set-aside program for minority contractors and rejected the idea of lowering standards for minorities. As far as the economy goes, Rudy reduced or eliminated 23 city taxes. He faced a $2.3 billion budget deficit but cut spending instead hiking taxes.
http://www.redstate.com/blogs/dmeaton/2007/feb/04/achieving_socially_conservative_ideals_through_liberal_means_making_the_case_for_rudy
"As George Will said on “This Week,” “His eight years as mayor of New York were the most successful episode of conservative governance in this country in the last 50 years, on welfare and crime particularly."
George Will seems to have forgotten Ronald Reagan already. Welfare and crime are about all Rudy can boast about. His philosophy is a complete repudiation of most of what Reagan Republicans believed. Reagan did not compromise on abortion or other fundamental issues, but he drew in millions of independent and Democrat voters. This idea that we must move left to win national elections is not new; it's what the country clubbers and RINOs told us for years and years. Reagan proved all that was a lie.
Blah, blah, blah. Rudy Giuliani's positions on the issues are indistinguishable from those of Joe Lieberman. If that's your idea of a conservative Republican, you need a new dictionary.
Rudy Giuliani is pro-abortion, pro-gun-control, and pro-special rights for gays. He does not appear to be very strong on reducing the size of government or cutting taxes. True, he's great on law-and-order issues (except when it comes to abortionists, who may continue to murder with impunity), but he's not running for police commissioner.
If Rudy Giuliani is the GOP presidential nominee he will not do well with socially conservative rural voters and thus be unable to carry Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky or Ohio. It would be very difficult for a GOP presidential candidate to get to 270 electoral votes without winning all 6 of those states; in fact, those six states have voted for the winning presidential candidate in each of the past 9 presidential elections (Nixon in 72, Carter in 76, Reagan in 80 and 84, Bush in 88, Clinton in 92 and 96 and Bush in 00 and 04), so to call them "must-win" would be an understatement. Nominating a pro-gay, pro-abortion, anti-gun "Republican" for President makes absolutely no sense, since those socially conservative rural voters would probably vote for the Democrat (with whom they tend to agree on economic and trade issues) or else stay home. Rudy Giuliani is not a viable national candidate.
You know, I read stuff like that and I actually get excited about a Rudy candidacy, and hopeful for the country if we obtained a Rudy presidency.
And golly, the contrast between him and MRS BILL CLINTON, for instance, is breath-taking.
Hello!? Didn't we just go through 6 years of that already?