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.
Yes, and winning the independent vote 64%-27%. No other Republican can do that.
With you as their sorry advocate, they need all the ammo they can get.
Other than that I'm still waiting to read a single post from anyone who agrees with you. Loser.
And the president doesn't have veto power anyway. Or does he? Hmm...
Ah yes. Polls taken by the MSM on the coasts, carefully constructed to bring out the desired end.
Seriously, do you read here at all?
"Giuliani, received a rare occupational deferment in 1969 after a federal judge wrote a letter about the importance of his duties as a law clerk."
A draft dodger leading the War on Terror?...LOL
No, thank YOU. It's been fun. Really.
"Yes, and winning the independent vote 64%-27%. No other Republican can do that."
Rudy is wisely following the Arnold Schwarzenegger's proven winning strategy.
Schwarzenegger Implores GOP To Follow Script of His Sequel: Court the Center
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1736725/posts
In his victory speech Tuesday night to a confetti-swamped crowd at the Beverly Hilton, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had a message for the rest of the Republican Party after its worst defeat in decades.
Follow "the California way," he said. "We are proving to the nation that there is another way to go, a better path to solve problems."
Schwarzenegger's landslide victory in a largely Democratic state illustrates the growing power of moderate candidates and the electoral appeal of bipartisanship, and it could contain important lessons for Republicans and Democrats as they seek to position themselves in the future, analysts and politicians said.
"If I was a Republican National Committee chair, I would hire Arnold out and teach Republicans what is necessary to put together a winning campaign," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst at the University of Southern California. "He really is the poster boy of what Republicans have denied for so long. Elections are won from the center."
Jorge is a regular on the illegal immigration threads, eloquently describing how beneficial illegal Mexican immigration is to this country, how helpful a guest worker program would be, and how Bush's policies on such matters are dead on.
I'm not surprised to see him come out in support of Rudy.
You too :)
Yes. Enough to see you getting your butt kicked. It's rather embarrassing to watch.
These anti-Rudy people, they are some of the biggest idiots ever. They know nothing about politics and how to win elections. I sometimes don't know if I should laugh or bang my head into the computer screen.
ROTFL. You really believe that, don't you?
Jorge, strong on letting in illegals? I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.
"Hillary stands no chance. Her own party is more than 50% against her. She would lose worse than sKerry, so they won't let her run. David Geffen is investing a few millions of his personal stash to stop her.
We don't need to consider losers like Rudy or Romney; We can go for a real candidate that we don't need to hold our nose to vote for."
I agree with you on both counts. Hillary isn't likeable even to her own party. They(bill&hill) have made too many enemies and now it's catching up to them.
And unless we put up a real conservative winning is meaningless.
" I don't believe many candidates have the broad based appeal Rudy has"
You mean, of course, appeal to the liberals...
And frankly, if anyone were really concerned about a nuked city, then the br....
Wait, don't want to 'jack the thread.
So then I'm told, "What about the economy .. your taxes?, don't mean a thing to me. In fact the Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth has some very specific instructions concerning me worrying about the contents of my wallet/ and/or D&B rating.
I've never voted for a Democrat and don't plan on it, but if my Party no longer represents me?
But relax, I'm in Oregon where a f*rt in wind will have more effect of the outcome of any election.
Yes, I love Mexicans. Legal or illegal. I can't help myself. (pray for me)
"It is something when he comes into your office like a whirling dervish and starts discussing a subject first at the national level and then down at the microlevel, and then leaves you pieces of metal on your desk that you can hardly lift and has explained exactly where it goes, what it's for, why it should be there and then wants to know why it isn't. And God bless him for it."
Rumsfeld also said the U.S. is more secure because of Hunter.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.