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.

[NapkinUser]

Current FreeRepublic results:

Duncan Hunter: 67.9%
Rudy Giuliani: 23.7%

[narses]

+

Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic Ping List:

Add me / Remove me

Please ping me to all note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of interest.

Giuliani/Clinton/Dem vs. GOP Platform Comparison
Issue	Giuliani	Clinton	Dem Platform	GOP Platform
Abortion on Demand	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Partial Birth Abortion	Supports Opposed NY ban	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Roe v. Wade	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Taxpayer Funded Abortions	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Embryonic Stem Cell Research	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Federal Marriage Amendment	Opposes	Opposes	Opposes Defined at state level	Supports
Gay Domestic Partnership/ Civil Unions	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Openly Gay Military	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Defense of Marriage Act	Opposes	Opposes	Opposes	Supports
Amnesty for Illegal Aliens	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Special Path to Citizenship for Illegal Aliens	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Tough Penalties for Employers of Illegal Aliens	Opposes	Opposes	Opposes	Supports
Sanctuary Cities/ Ignoring Immigration Law	Supports	Supports	Supports	Opposes
Protecting 2nd Amendment	Opposes	Opposes	Opposes Supports bans	Supports
Confiscating Guns	Supports Confiscated as mayor. Even bragged.	Supports	Supports Supports bans	Opposes
'Assault' Weapons Ban	Supports	Supports	Supports
Frivolous Lawsuits Against Gun Makers	Supports Filed One Himself	Supports		Opposes
Gun Registration/Licenses	Supports	Supports		Opposes
War in Afghanistan	Supports	Supports Voted for it	Supports	Supports
War in Iraq	Supports	Supports Voted for it	Supports Weak support	Supports
Patriot Act	Supports	Supports Voted for it 2001 & 2006	Opposes	Supports

"Most of Clinton's policies are very similar to most of mine." - Rudy Giuliani

Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do and how you do it.
Rudy Giuliani

We don't have to accept liberal Rudy. There are other options. This fellow may be the best one:







"How can I help?"

Get informed: Duncan Hunter on the Issues

Sign up: Freepmail me to join the Duncan Hunter Pinglist

Or Freepmail seanmerc to join the Veterans for Hunter Pinglist

Put your money where your values are: Contribute to Duncan Hunter's Presidential Campaign

Help spread the word: Purchase "Hunter for President" items. Proceeds go to the Hunter campaign.

[The Wizard]

We will vote for RFudy...three votes here.

[EternalVigilance]

Yeah. And they've almost completely gone through their ping list for votes.

[FairOpinion]

You keep trying to divert from the REAL issues: NATIONAL SECURITY AND DEM APPOINTED JUDGES.

THAT is what is at stake.

What do you think will happen to the country and conservatism if the next President is a Dem? He/she will stack the court with judges more liberal than Ruth Bater Ginsburg. Are you going to be proud of yourself that you HELPED that happen?

[LtdGovt]

Rudy will note be more liberal than Pataki. Pataki was a disaster, and not only because he was a liberal. He did nothing to build the party. Also, I see no evidence for the claim that Rudy is more fiscally liberal than Pataki.

[LtdGovt]

Ms. Hanover is that you?

LOL!

[onyx eyes]

thanks, spikeytx86, for the definition.
republican in name only. It fits. some people.

[mkjessup]

Well, good for him. Pataki stabbed the state GOP in the back, destroyed the state GOP, spent more than a Democrat could have dreamed about. He was a disaster.

You missed the point.

When Pataki was nominated as the GOP gubernatorial candidate, neither Rudy or anyone else could look 12 years into the future and see whether or not Pataki would be good or bad for the State or the Party. As the nominee, Rudy (as the alleged Republican Mayor of NYC) was obligated to support him, but he chose instead to support Mario Cuomo.

That speaks volumes.

[Gracey]

Sounds like you're jealous of Rudy.

[Beagle8U]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1788295/posts

Posted 3 days ago. You guys need coordinate you efforts to at least resist the appearance of spam.

[dynachrome]

ping to #65 Do you have the Rudy quote about Ruth Bader Ginsburg handy?

[LtdGovt]

One of the key attributes of a political leader is foresight. He might not have been able to say what he felt, but he felt that something was wrong with Pataki. Since he endorsed Bob Dole over Clinton (and that was much closer to his 1997 re-election), I don't think we can talk of a political motive.

[babygene]

"You're talking to some of the "sit it out" morons who helped give the the Dem Congress we now are blessed with."

Since we know there will be "sit it out" morons that will keep Rudy from winning in the general election, are we not handing the presidency to Hillary by nominating Rudy?

Why not get behind a candidate that more people can support?

[sockmonkey]

So the war on terror is not important enough for you? Taxes are not important for you? Limited government, government regulation, tough-on crime judges?

Oh, you've made me feel soooo guilty for not supporting the socially liberal New Yorker, I've decided I would vote for him, not.

A Giuliani candidacy is not going to fly with Southern Republicans. I don't care what any pollsters say. I don't care what pundits say. I don't care what other Freepers say. If the GOP puts Giuliani up as the Republican candidate, there will be many Southern Republicans/Social Conservatives who will not vote for him.

[FairOpinion]

Let tme help you out and post the entire quote, rather than some potentially misleading excerpt:


Host Alan Colmes:
"Now, Roe versus -- now, you are pro-choice. How important is it to you as a pro-choice Republican to have a pro-choice on the court as someone...

Giuliani:"That is not the critical factor. And what's important to me is to have a very intelligent, very honest, very good lawyer on the court. And [John Roberts] fits that category, in the same way Justice Ginsburg fit that category. I mean, she was -- she maybe came at it from a very different political background, very qualified lawyer, very smart person. Lots of Republicans supported her. I expect, and listening to Senator Nelson, I expect that John Roberts will get support from a lot of Democrats."


http://politikditto.blogspot.com/2007/02/rudy-giuliani-supported-ruth-ginsberg.html


And NOW Rudy promised to appoint judges like Alito and I believe he will.

[Jorge]

Why not get behind a candidate that more people can support?

I don't believe many candidates have the broad based appeal Rudy has.

[narses]

This is a partial transcript from "Hannity & Colmes," July 20, 2005...

COLMES: Now, on abortion — now, you are pro-choice, right?

GIULIANI: Yes.

COLMES: You're a pro-choice Republican.

GIULIANI: I am.

~snip~

COLMES: Now, Roe vs. Wade -- You are pro-choice. How important is it to you as a pro-choice Republican to have a pro-choice on the court as someone...

GIULIANI: That is not the critical factor. And what's important to me is to have a very intelligent, very honest, very good lawyer on the court. And he fits that category, in the same way Justice Ginsburg fit that category.

I mean, she was — she maybe came at it from a very different political background, very qualified lawyer, very smart person.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

That is about the level of discourse I have come to expect from the Rudy haters and "Real conservatives" who are increasingly delusional.

[spikeytx86]

This was how long ago? 93? Hell a good portion of our Republicans here in Texas were still Democrats or just became Republicans. My outlook has changed considerably since 14 years ago (granted I was 6) and I am sure everyone else's here has as well.

The Reagan of 1980 was more conservative then the Reagan of 1966. Was Reagan not to be trusted?