Posted on 02/23/2007 7:05:51 PM PST by FairOpinion
I've never voted for Rudy Giuliani in my life. But I'm thinking hard about it now.
In both cases, I surprise myself.
The rest of America may know Rudy as "America's Mayor" for his ceremonial performance post-9/11, but for New Yorkers who lived through the Dinkins years, Rudy Giuliani is more than a guy who stands tall when the skyscrapers fall. By the late '90s, people were beginning to say that New York City was ungovernable: Remember the court-driven interest group spending, the disorder, the bums taking over the parks and the playgrounds and the street corners, spiraling welfare costs, the crime, the small business disaster, the high taxes, rent control, the South Bronx? New York was a disaster area, a poster child for what liberalism hath wrought.
The glittering cosmopolitan New York City we now live in, the one seemingly every college student in America dreams about moving to, is largely Rudy's gift, forged in the face of intense, daily, nasty invective from those who at the time insisted that to demand order and civility in a large city was to be a fascist.
Even Rudy's 9/11 performance tends to be misdescribed. It was not that he "stood tall" or didn't emotionally collapse. George Bush came to New York City and made graceful speeches about how we will rebuild the hole in the ground that still remains. What stood out for us in that dark time was not that the mayor of New York insisted we would triumph over this adversity, but that he didn't try to spin us about how unimaginably bad this sort of adversity was. He didn't try to soft-pedal the uncertainty, the chaos, the suffering the city was going through, and that gave us the confidence to believe that reality, terrible as it was, could in fact be faced.
I never voted for Rudy when I lived in New York City for one simple reason: abortion. I don't look for purity in politicians, just for some small pro-life reason to vote for a guy: Medicaid funding, parental notification, partial birth abortion. Throw me the slightest lifeline, otherwise I assume he just doesn't want the vote of people like me. Rudy never did. So I never gave him my vote. And of course it doesn't help now to recall the way Rudy treated his second wife, nor do I particularly want to imagine the third Mrs. Giuliani as Laura Bush's successor.
So I could have sworn, even a few months ago, that I'd never vote for Rudy Giuliani, in spite of my deep respect for his considerable achievements as mayor. So why would I even think of changing my mind? Two things: national security, and Hillary Clinton's Supreme Court appointments.
When I ask myself, who of all the candidates in both parties do I most trust to keep me and my children safe? The answer is instantaneous, deeper than the level any particular policy debate can go: Rudy Giuliani. And when I look ahead on social issues like gay marriage, the greatest threat I see is that the Supreme Court with two or more appointments from Hillary Clinton, will decide that our Founding Fathers, in their wisdom, created a national constitutional right to whatever social liberals have decided is the latest civil rights battle. It's hard to see a state that George Bush won in which Rudy Giuliani will not beat Hillary Clinton. And he will put a whole slew of new blue states into play: Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, to name just three. (The latest Quinnipiac poll shows Giuliani in a dead heat with Clinton in Connecticut.) Which puts people like me, who care very deeply about marriage and life issues, in the position of thinking hard about Rudy.
I didn't know Hillary and Rudy were the only candidates.
Remember Truman holding up the paper, Dewey won.
The polls that are quoted on FR are by the MSM. We know how fair they are....not
It is interesting the Rudy folks quote polls when it suits them and blows off the FR poll where all can vote including non members.
Easy to catch, I read most everything that gets posted.
Nice try, Jorge, many of us already walked that line with Bush and won't make the same mistake again.
So you're saying you would have prefered Al Gore as president.
That explains a lot.
and vote and vote and vote and vote and vote and vote.
Excellent post. Thank you!
You did nothing to illuminate the political makeup of the judges Giuliani picked.
You've described the process. That's all.
court-driven interest group spending, the disorder, the bums taking over the parks and the playgrounds and the street corners, spiraling welfare costs, the crime, the small business disaster, the high taxes, rent control, the South Bronx?
If things such as this can be done on a national scale, I'm not complaining. Close the border, kick a few gungrabbers in the nuts while he's at it, we might have a candidate.
"The polls that are quoted on FR are by the MSM. We know how fair they are....not "
Yep and back in 06' all the poll's were wrong and rigged. Not only were the Republicans going to maintain control, they were gonna pick up seats!
You might as well go back to DU where you belong then.
Awesome list of accomplishments Al. Rudy's a great. Anyone who can do what he did for NY can do great things for the nation.
LBT
-=-=-
From Human Events:
Rudy's Strong Pro-Abortion Stance
As these comments from a 1989 conversation with Phil Donahue show, Rudy Giuliani is staunchly in favor of abortion:
"I've said that I'll uphold a woman's right of choice, that I will fund abortion so that a poor woman is not deprived of a right that others can exercise, and that I would oppose going back to a day in which abortions were illegal.
I do that in spite of my own personal reservations. I have a daughter now; if a close relative or a daughter were pregnant, I would give my personal advice, my religious and moral views ...
Donahue: Which would be to continue the pregnancy.
Giuliani: Which would be that I would help her with taking care of the baby. But if the ultimate choice of the woman - my daughter or any other woman - would be that in this particular circumstance [if she had] to have an abortion, I'd support that. I'd give my daughter the money for it."
Worse yet, Giuliani even supports partial birth abortion:
"I'm pro-choice. I'm pro-gay rights,Giuliani said. He was then asked whether he supports a ban on what critics call partial-birth abortions. "No, I have not supported that, and I don't see my position on that changing," he responded." -- CNN.com, "Inside Politics" Dec 2, 1999
It's bad enough that Rudy is so adamantly pro-abortion, but consider what that could mean when it comes time to select Supreme Court Justices. Does the description of Giuliani that you've just read make you think he's going to select an originalist like Clarence Thomas, who would vote to overturn Roe v. Wade -- or does it make you think he would prefer justices like Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy who'd leave Roe v. Wade in place?
Rudy's abortion stance is bad news for conservatives who are pro-life or who are concerned about getting originalist judges on the Supreme Court.
An Anti-Second Amendment Candidate
In the last couple of election cycles, 2nd Amendment issues have moved to the back burner mainly because even Democratic candidates have learned that being tagged with the "gun grabber" label is political poison.
Unfortunately, Rudy Giuliani is a proponent of gun control who supported the Brady Bill and the Assault Weapon Ban.
Do Republicans really want to abandon their strong 2nd Amendment stance by selecting a pro-gun control nominee?
"I see, Rudy's word is not good enough for you."
Its not only Rudy's word but its also Ted Olsen's word. Recently Ted Olsen, who worked with Rudy in the REAGAN Justice Department in the early 1980s said Rudy has always been for strict constructionist judges. I think we have to take Ted Olsen at his word.
No it's not. It's drying up the money for a conservative alternative.
Rudy is a shill for the globo-corporate media drive to assure that Hillary is elected.
You know the FR polls are set up that you can only vote once.
"Current FreeRepublic results:
Duncan Hunter: 67.9%
Rudy Giuliani: 23.7%"
Yawn. Another unscientific poll that shows nothing.
He has been failure as a president and this is coming from someone stupid enough to get shin splints doing canvassing and door to doors for him. Did he live up to what he promised? Even remotely? If you are a decent and honest (I would assume man) you cannot answer that in the affirmative. No way in hell can you.
Thanks, My GOP, I didn't know that.
EV -- PING to 135, where My GOP posted:
"Recently Ted Olsen, who worked with Rudy in the REAGAN Justice Department in the early 1980s said Rudy has always been for strict constructionist judges. I think we have to take Ted Olsen at his word."
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