Thinking Hard About Voting For Rudy Guiliani

The Bulletin ^ | Feb. 22, 2007 | Maggie Gallagher

[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.

[FairOpinion]

Food for thought...

Ask yourself: "What judges will Hillary put on the Supreme Court"? THAT is what will make a difference for the next 50 years.

[FairOpinion]

Rudy PING

[toddlintown]

Who is the REAL Rudy?

A sleaze bag who dropped a 14-year marriage with a BS annullment (second cousin), divorced a second while chasing another woman, and lived with 2 homos while the marital dust of number 2 settled...and then married again.

The funny thing, 2nd wife Donna Hanover thought she was getting the heave-ho because of Rudy's well-known relationship with yet another woman, Cristyne Lategano, the mayor's former communications director.

This guy makes BJ Clinton look like an amateur horn dog.

[spikeytx86]

By all means do not marry him!

"and lived with 2 homos" So no one who is friends with gay folks can be President? Gee I wonder why so many think we are bigots?

[merry10]

One of my thoughts is - Can I see Obama (who does not have any law enforcement background and never really led anythign) or Hillary as Commander In Chief?

No.

Supporting Rudy G is easy for me.

[merry10]

I guess if you are not a true blue conservative, the rules say that you need to not even talk to or befriend any gay people. In fact, if you have one in your family - don't tell ANYBODY!

[EternalVigilance]

Tell Arnie thanks for his opinion.

[FairOpinion]

The author hits on the KEY and really ONLY important considerations:

Two things: national security, and Hillary Clinton's Supreme Court appointments.

[Peach]

LOL. So many posts these days are just fitting right in with the media's stereotype of Republicans that I've begun to wonder if the Washington Post is signed up here.

[mkjessup]

I have another 'ask yourself' moment:

If Rudy Giuliani were running for the DEMOCRATIC nomination for President, would you cross party lines and vote for him?

[toddlintown]

RINO excuses.

[Antoninus]

Rudy is not to be trusted assigning judges to the SCOTUS. I much prefer the guy who said this:

"If a judicial nominee can look at a sonogram, the picture of an unborn child, and not see a valuable human life, I'm not going to give him an appointment to the court. I am going to give him an appointment to an optometrist to get a set of eyeglasses."







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[SIDENET]

Vote for a liberal and you get liberalism.

[FairOpinion]

"If Rudy Giuliani were running for the DEMOCRATIC nomination for President, would you cross party lines and vote for him? "


It all depends on WHO would be running against him.

And election is NOT between some imaginary people vs. real ones, it's between TWO (READ AGAIN: TWO) candidates and you MUST choose between them, or you are voting for the worst one.

So again: you have the choice Hillary vs. Rudy. Are you going to be a "conservative for Hillary" or get out and vote for the Republican candidate, who, at the moment appears to very likely be Rudy.

[merry10]

I know you're answering it of Fair Opinion.

I called Lieberman's office when Algore endorsed Howard Dean. Even though I am a Bush supporter, I still would have liked to have seen Joe Lieberman with the nomination, because if Bush lost to him, then maybe we'd still be okay because he understands the stakes.

Security is the number one issue with me.

[mkjessup]

The author hits on the KEY and really ONLY important considerations: two things: national security, and Hillary Clinton's Supreme Court appointments.

OK, what are Rudy's national security credentials beyond his performance on 9/11?

And there is no guarantee that Hillary is going to get the nomination, that whole 'Hillary's Supreme Court Appointments gambit is nothing but a straw man argument.

[dirtboy]

By the late '90s, people were beginning to say that New York City was ungovernable:

The damn Rudy boosters are getting so sloppy that they can't even get their dates right.

[stephenjohnbanker]

And here are a few scenes from next weeks show................

[FairOpinion]

Yes, Hunter has real momentum, he went from 1% to 2% in the polls, where the margin of error is 2.5% -- a real winner and a strong candidate against Hillary. (/SARCASM)

[stephenjohnbanker]

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