If I remember correctly, you were living in New York City back then (as was I). Sure the press had turned on him by then, but what was not to like about him? Compare him to Dinkins and Bloomberg, and you appreciate how hard the job was BEFORE 9/11 and how excellent he was at it. I don't want Rudy Giuliani to be president, but he may have been the best mayor NYC ever had.
You remember correctly. Guess I should've qualified things further.
I was growing disenchanted with Giuliani versus "earlier Giuliani". I felt he was growing bored and over-reaching into certain areas that he didn't need to.
That said I remember, and remembered then, well what he did for the city after the Dinkins disaster. I'd make Rudy "Mayor for life" if I could.
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.