Posted on 02/12/2007 7:39:47 AM PST by presidio9
It has nothing to do with what you or I want to think about. I don't like Giuliani's politics any more than you do, but prosecuting mobsters in New York WAS heroic. Period. He was also an excellent mayor. He would be a lousy president.
Well, Rudy was a republican and almost no Republican is going to be very popular in NY City. But Rudy was popular at one time, as mentioned he even did Seinfeld. But the change came when he was going to run for Senate against Hillary. The MSM changed from the man who cleaned up NYC to the Nazi image that the far left used to attack him. Its actually similar to the MSM's constant attacks on Bush. Any hint of a scandal and the press attacked, even if it had to make it up.
Still, he would have won if he hadn't gotten prostate cancer, because he would have destroyed her in the debates.
Giuliani doesn't profit off of 9/11. He profits off of his name, and the fact that his leadership strategies were remarkably effective in NYC after a lot of people had basically written this city off.
Yeah... but he canned Lloyd Braun.
Yeah... but he canned Lloyd Braun.
Not that there's anything wrong with that................
"should be pointing out what is happening in upstate New York now and what happened in New Orleans after Katrina."
Katrina showed the corruption of the LA local and state governments.
However, dealing with 12ft of Snow is quite different than being under 12+ft of Water.
He was a gun-grabbing statist on all three days.
But after enough Liberals had been mugged, and their streets under a foot or so of dogcrap, and the homeless interrupting Woody Allen at Elaine's, they turned to Rudy.
Guy from Brooklyn. Manhattan College,unfashionably the most thorough educational institution in the country. He cleaned the place up, but he wasn't touchy-feely enough for your basic Leftist New Yorker (people so stupid, they think Don Imus is a cowboy). So after he got the place barely livable again, they turned on him.
Rudy is a tough guy, who doesn't like giving credit to anyone else, and has been known to get rough to get his way. The city's power brokers also don't care much for Catholics, except in the Police and Fire Department. So basically they couldn't wait to get rid of this embarassingly efficient egocentric guy.
Now they got Bloomberg, and the dogcrap is piling up and the homeless are back squatting in Elaine's window. Give it 5 years, and they'll go looking for another Rudy, but they won't like him, either.
At least we can agree on the most important point.
Rudy is about as Catholic as Ted Kennedy or Nancy Pelosi. BTW, the city has had several Catholic Mayors. The state also had a Catholic Senator and a Catholic Governor when Giuliani was elected. I'm guessing that Clinton is NY's first Methodist Senator.
Excuse me, but that's distinction without a difference. If not for 9/11 his name would be worth squat.
As some have posted and as I recall from reading the NY newspapers (plural) - he couldn't get elected dog catcher on 9/10/01. He wasn't a 'bum', but he wasn't exactly loved by the majority on NYC residents either.
As to his 'leadership strategies' - that's irrelevant as the comparison is always to Dinkens or the jerk in New Orleans. The fact is everything Rudy did to clean up NYC, mayor Richie Daley did the same in Chicago, maybe even better.
If not for prostate cancer, he would have been NY's senator on 9/11. What's your point? We are all products of circumstances. He doesn't spend a lot of time talking about 9/11 in the speeches he gives. The left has created that myth to form the argument you are making, and it is simply not true. Attack him for being a social liberal, but cut back on the ignorant accusations. Chicago, and certainly not New Orleans do not even BEGIN to present the challenges that NY does. Several political commentators have said that Mayor of NYC is the second hardest job in politics after President, and they were saying that before 9/11.
Ya know,
I've always found tinsel to be distracting.........
Pataki and Cuomo were both Catholics of a sort, of course, but that WAS less of a handicap when running statewide, as beyond NYC, NYS was Catholic, Italian, and Republican to some significant degree. Mario always had NYC voting for him, Pataki did not. And now there's Spitzer. NYC all the way. And you've got Hillary and Schumer ... replacing Damato, Cuomo, Moynihan, and Pataki.
Speaking in embarassingly ethnic sheer numbers, the Hispanics, African-American Americans, and Jews of New York City and environs now outnumber any other voting blocks in the state. Throw in Italian and Irish union people, and it's pretty darn near over for the GOP in NYS. Frankly, I didn't think Rudy had a chance of beating Hillary in NYS. Of course, he would have done better than Lazio. So would my favorite hunting dog. But not that much better!
On 9/10, Rudy was a RINO, a label that has been used so often on FR, it has almost lost its meaning. Rudy was truly a Republican in Name Only on 9/10. On 9/11, Rudy was a leader whose party affiliation was at the time entirely irrelevant. And now after, 9/12 Rudy somehow is being taken seriously as a REPUBLICAN candidate for President. Life can change in an instant, but one's politics do not change instantaneously and Rudy is still a RINO, even if RINOs have become so ubiquitous as to become a cliche.
You forgot to mention that the first Catholic to make a serious bid for the presidency was an Irish Governor of New York. Rudy was tied with Clinton right when he was taking the most heat for shacking up with homos and marrying Judi Nathan. He would have wiped the floor with her in the debates, and that would ahve been that.
BTW, NYC remains mostly Catholic. The city remains mostly Catholic. Of 8.5mm residents, there are 2.5mm hispanics, 800,000 Italians, 700,000 Irish, 350,000 Poles, and 100,000 Philipinos, nearly all of whom are Catholic. That is before you count the smaller percentages of other nationalities who are also Catholic.
I seriously doubt that you even knew who Rudy Giuliani WAS on 9/10/01
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