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From RedState blog:

I'm not here to convince you that Mayor Giuliani is a longstanding full-scale, across-the-board conservative; we all know his record. But his remarks in this 1999 tribute to President Reagan, back while Rudy was still mayor of an 80% Democratic city, provide a glimpse of his fealty to (most of) the basic principles of the GOP and its greatest modern leader:

On the rule of law and the Constitution:

President Reagan's philosophy is traceable directly to the Framers of the Constitution. When one of his foes accused him of having a "19th century attitude" about politics, President responded: "That is a totally false charge. I have an 18th Century attitude." [Laughter.] And he continued with a long discourse on the wisdom of the Framers of the Constitution, our Founding Fathers.

After all, it was the Framers of our Constitution, our Founding Fathers, who designed a system of checks and balances between and among the three branches of the Federal government-and between the federal government and the states. And they did that to preserve our freedom, because they understood, as Ronald Reagan reminded us, that the power of government, can be for the good or it can be for the bad.

President Reagan did more than any President since Lincoln to restore the checks and balances instituted by the Framers. He appointed judges faithful to the Constitution and the rule of law-many of them-and that's one of his great legacies. And he almost single-handedly resurrected the 10th Amendment to the Constitution-that had been ignored for many, many years. That clause says, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Because Ronald Reagan put people before government.

On federalism:

"State sovereignty," he argued, "is an integral part of the checks and balances designed to restrain one group from destroying the freedom of another."

He pledged that he would "return authority to the local communities-and he kept that pledge. He once said that "the people of San Francisco know better than anyone in Sacramento where a freeway in San Francisco should go." He said that when he was governor. The same thing is true of New York City and Albany, I should say . . . and of New York State and Washington.

As President, President Reagan returned to governors, to mayors, to local officials, the powers that had been denied to him as the governor of California, and I believe that's how the great American comeback of states and cities began.

For example, Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson and Michigan Governor John Engler have completely reformed their state's welfare systems and turned them in an entirely different direction from dependency to self-sufficiency. In my state, Governor George Pataki has cut taxes more than any other governor in our history. And when you cut taxes in New York, that is a total change in direction.

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And what began in the state houses eventually reached city halls.

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Ronald Reagan didn't accede to those requests in looking for a federal handout. Instead he gave them something infinitely more valuable: the means to tackle their own problems, and to take charge of their cities' destinies by handing power and accountability back to them by reducing the role of the federal government.

It would take a new generation of mayors assuming office before the potential of that gift was realized, but that new generation came. And now cities like New York and Los Angeles and Chicago and Philadelphia and Indianapolis are enjoying a reawakening. And it's a reawakening that was made possible by the power that Ronald Reagan helped to devolve to governments-to state governments and local governments, the mayors and the county executives, and the council members . . . a reawakening made possible by a great deal of confidence in people and in local government.

On taxes and school choice:

I think the former-the expansion of freedom at home-is probably best reflected in the amount of money he returned to people in tax reductions. Wherever possible and reasonable, he always preferred to reserve to individuals the choice of when, where and how to spend their money, rather than have the government make that choice for them. You all remember, I'm sure, the first year that he was in office, the tremendous battle over the major tax reductions that were necessary. And I think you all remember the tremendous ridicule that took place in some parts of the media and elsewhere of "supply-side economics" and "trickle-down economics."

The reality is that what Ronald Reagan was doing was expanding freedom for people. What he believed is that you will make a better choice about the spending of your money than government will make, and that when we give some of that money back to you, we're trusting you more. We're saying that you will make a better choice than government will make. And if you can release that kind of creative energy in society, there's no telling what it can accomplish.

What it's accomplished is a major revision of our economy, including the budget surpluses that we see today.

It's even convinced a city like my city that we should reduced taxes. When I came into office, we had the highest Hotel Occupancy Tax in the country. We were driving people out of the city by charging them 21-and-1/4% over and above . . . no, we don't charge it anymore, don't get upset. [Laughter] I don't want you to be driven away. So don't get upset.

I fought very hard the first year that I was in office to reduce the tax. And we've reduced it by 30%. And now we collect $90 million more from the lower tax than we did from the higher tax. So who says that "supply-side" economics doesn't work? Of course it works.

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I wish that we followed that in dealing with American education, which is going to be a major challenge of the next century . . . that we follow the notion and the idea of giving people more freedom: giving them more freedom of choice about the education of their children rather than having the government dominate that decision; giving them the freedom to have more alternatives for an education; putting the performance of children ahead of the job protection of the people in the system. [Applause] These are all ideas and thoughts that have been introduced into the agenda of American politics by Ronald Reagan.

On Reagan's impact in changing the political debate:

There can be no doubt that Ronald Reagan's election and presidency were a driving force behind this realignment of America, of American politics.

And I don't think the success of his own party, the Republican Party, my party, is the full extent of the Reagan Realignment. The impact of the change wrought by President Reagan-much like Franklin Roosevelt-has dominated the politics of even the other political party.

President Clinton is still reacting to what President Reagan accomplished almost 20 years ago. Remember he ran for election in 1992 as a "New Democrat" . . . a moderate Democrat. He ran for reelection in 1996 claiming reforming welfare and moving toward the middle. None of that would have happened without Ronald Reagan and the effect of Ronald Reagan.

In fact, it was Bill Clinton who made the Reagan Realignment official when, in January of 1996, he famously declared to a standing ovation to the joint Houses of Congress that "the era of big government is over." [Laughter.]

Well, he said it. [Laughter.]

And we believe it. Well, when even a Democratic president is forced to say that, you know things have changed.

On the Cold War:

Remember that when President Reagan took office, the Soviet Union was on the march. Its leaders were flush with all the confidence that the West seemed to lack. President Reagan realized that it was crucial that we deploy intermediate missiles in Europe in order to reduce the threat of the Soviet Union.

He was met by tremendous criticism at home. I remember, the week before that was done, ABC had a mini-series called The Day After that was so bad that teachers had to ask that their children not watch the mini-series. It was about the destruction of the world, creating the fear that if we deployed the intermediate range missiles toward the Soviet Union, that the world would be destroyed.

A lesser man, a lesser president would have stepped back in the face of the criticism. But Ronald Reagan didn't budge. He went ahead with the deployment. And the Soviets learned that it wasn't just his rhetoric that was strong. So was his will. So were his convictions. So was his ability to convince others that he was right.

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So he proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative-and he was laughed at for it by some. But he stuck to it. And he stuck to it when Congress tried to oppose it, and he stuck to it in negotiations with the Soviets.

On the lessons of Reagan's foreign policy:

All of the things that Ronald Reagan fought for and all of the things that he made part of the American political agenda are just as important today: a missile defense system is as vital now as it was when President Reagan first proposed it fifteen years ago-maybe more so given the proliferation of nuclear weapons under President Clinton, many more nuclear weapons and nuclear capacity for China, India, Pakistan. So the concept of defense against nuclear weapons that Ronald Reagan first announced to the American people is just as important today as it was then.

And Congress needs now to look at revitalizing our armed forces. I truly believes that when President Clinton leaves office, he'll be one of the few presidents in this century-not the only one, but one of the few-who will hand off the American military to the next president less developed, less funded, and with much lower morale than it was handed to him by President Bush. And the next president is going to have to rebuild much of what is needed for our military in the same way that President Reagan had to do that in 1980. It's a shame that we forgot that lesson. And it's a shame that the Clinton Administration took a peace dividend so soon and at such great a price. But the problem has to be addressed, and it's important that we remember the principles of Ronald Reagan in doing that.

President Reagan had a clear vision of America's place in the world. He knew that we are truly the "indispensable nation"-and he wasn't afraid to say it, and he wasn't afraid to articulate it. His foreign policy had a sense of precision and principle, and even for those who disagreed with him, they knew the direction America would take. The next president is going to have to rebuild a foreign policy similar to that, because he's going to inherit a sense of confusion and a lack of purpose about America. And like President Reagan, he's going to have to rebuild that. But at least the next president will have the example of Ronald Reagan to follow.

Conclusive proof that Rudy is a Reaganite? Of course not. Words and deeds both matter. But it's all part of the picture that we have to get of all our candidates.

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1794002/posts