Rudy Giuliani On Iraq, Taxes, Mistakes

Business Week ^ | 4/20/07 | Maria Bartiromo

[areafiftyone]

In two terms as mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani turned a city beset by crime and violence into one of the safest, most livable metropolises in America. And he fearlessly led New York as it confronted the despair and destruction following September 11. But the turmoil of Giuliani's private life prompted many to dismiss his quest for the Republican nomination for President as the folly of a man with too much baggage to be a serious candidate. Never one to put much stock in political pundits or conventional wisdom, Giuliani has soldiered on, and as of Apr. 18, early polling had him leading the GOP pack.

What would you do differently in Iraq?
I think the policy in Iraq has to be: Clear, hold, and build. As soon as you get to a situation of considerably less violence, you have to get the Iraqis to rebuild their infrastructure, open their factories, fix their roads and schools. The statistic that worries me the most about Iraq, in addition to the obvious violence that has to be reduced, is its 60% unemployment, at least as of a month ago. If there's 60% unemployment in Iraq six months from now, it's going to be very hard to create stability.

When should the troops pull out?
I can't emphasize [enough] how irresponsible Congress has been. The idea of having a timetable for withdrawal, which many of the Democrats used to say they would never doParagraph .is very, very dangerous. I can't remember in the history of war when an army or a country has announced its retreat and then given the enemy a timetable of that retreat.

[Spiff]

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
Overturning Roe v. Wade	Opposes	Opposes	Opposes	Supports
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	Varies 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

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Look at it this way.

A Presidential candidate running for the highest office in the land, where you are vowed to uphold and defend the Constitution, has constantly advocated national gun control.

Think about it.

[dforest]

It is sad thay you have to lie and spin the truth about Rudy.

The irritation is the less than frank tactics used to sell the very liberal Rudy, not just from Rudy supporters here on FR but also in many media sources.

Just look at the major correction in the Washington Times this week regarding Dr. Land. A writer actually had the nerve to mislead the readers to believe Dr. Land said he would vote for Hillary. The very same tactic is used here on FR and people are getting very wise to it.

[quantim]

Half the men in the U.S. don’t know how much a quart of milk is.

1 US quart = 32 US fluid ounces. ;-)

Oh, you meant how much it costs - guess I'm in the stupid half.  Haven't bought baby cow food in decades.

[areafiftyone]

LOL! Hey I’m a female I don’t know until I get to the store.

[DManA]

I support simplifying the tax code.

There's a bold courageous statement.

[garv]

He’s being advised on Iraq by John Bolton - I am guessing the number are probably correct.

I really don't like to question the motives of people who post here, but this is the kind of thing that really makes me wonder.

We've already been through the whole "Bolton is advising Giuliani" thing and there is not a shred of evidence that Bolton has any involvement with Giuliani other than a Giuliani campaign spokesperson claiming he "talks to many people" and including Bolton in that statement. How often does he talk to Bolton? When was the last time? How extensive is his involvement with Giuliani?

You may think making claims like this is no big deal, but the day after you posted the original article claiming Bolton's "advisory" role another Rudy backer claimed not only was Bolton and "adviser", but had "de facto" endorsed Giuliani. There has been a pattern (I'm not saying by you) of pro-Giuliani posters making exaggerated or false claims that are debunked, but take on a life of their own and continue to be repeated. To this day I continue to see posters claim that Ronald Reagan personally chose Giuliani for the DOJ.

[areafiftyone]

My god I explained that I didn’t say he was on Rudy’s team or endorsing Rudy just that he was advising him. He’s on nobody’s team.

[garv]

A poster questioned the 60% unemployment statistic that Giuliani cited and you responded by claiming that the statistic was most likely correct because Bolton was advising Giuliani on Iraq.

Did Bolton give him the statistic? When was the last time Bolton "advised" Giuliani on Iraq? Did he speak with him prior to making this statement?

The use of the term "advising him" has connotations beyond the occasional casual conversation.

[Liz]

Let's understand this: Rudy's so-called "mistakes" -----his incessant flip-flopping back and forth on abortion, gun control----his retractions, denials, and nuancing of issues----are all dedicated campaign strategies; con games worked out in Rudeo Campaign Central, designed to dupe voters.

Rudeo is trying to buy votes by posing as a well-meaning man who is merely "confused" and "forgetful" who "didn't really mean'" what he said.

One particularly revolting thing Rudeo does is to "laugh" off his blunders----for example, Rooty/Juti calculatedly announced Juti's Cabinet plans on 20/20. As a ferocious backlash emerged, Rooty and Juti announced they had a good "laugh" over the Cabinet idea.

There you have the "Oh, that Rudy's just kidding again" strategy.

The end result is for all voters on a particularly volatile issue, say abortion, to be conned into thinking Rudeo is on their side.

The intrinsic evil Rudeo's electoral con games bring to American politics cannot be dismissed.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Every time incorrect information is posted about Rudy, someone corrects it. No wonder you think we are all afraid of Rudy.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Oh come on, she was just saying that since he talked with John Bolton, he probably had the 60% number right.

However, there is no evidence that John Bolton has ever said unemployment in Iraq is 60%, or that Rudy got that number from John Bolton. That was complete speculation, and probably wrong.

the nationwide unemployment in Iraq is not 60%. I’ve seen the 60% number somewhere, and my guess is Rudy saw it as well, but misapplied it to the entire country.

He is still correct that a country with high unemployment will be an unstable country.

[TommyDale]

That is the nastiest statement made yet against the pro-life people here. So you haven’t seen us protesting abortion? Why is that? Are you one of the people inside?

[George W. Bush]

One particularly revolting thing Rudeo does is to "laugh" off his blunders----for example, Rooty/Juti calculatedly announced Juti's Cabinet plans on 20/20. As a ferocious backlash emerged, Rooty and Juti announced they had a good "laugh" over the Cabinet idea.

You can catch the stench of Xlintonism and triangulation all over his campaign.

[conserv8ive1]

His record on gun control speaks for itself, have fun with that.

[Ciexyz]

Rudy bump.

[KATIE-O]

"....Ultimately, the election will be about who the American people think will be the most effective leader. And they have every right to examine all aspects of my public life and my private life. Because I've had such a long career in so many different areas—probably the most diverse of anybody running—they can look to the success that I've had even though I've made mistakes and things went wrong, which I think kind of makes me human. When I was mayor, various things going on in my private life did not stop me from reducing crime by 57%, reducing homicides by 67%, turning a $2.3 billion deficit into a multibillion-dollar surplus. It didn't stop me from reducing the welfare rolls by 660,000. Then I had to deal with the worst attack in the history of the city, maybe the country. Sure, I've made mistakes, both privately and publicly, but what's the balance? The balance is that I've been able to have success. So I think they can be pretty confident that that's what would happen as President......"

I think his leadeship skills are also head and shoulders above any Republican candidate who is running. I like his answers about Iraq, Tax Reform, and especially when he calls Congress "irresponsible" in their efforts to set time limits on troop withdrawal.

[Ciexyz]

We can surmise that Rudy puts Half-and-half into his coffee instead of milk.

[areafiftyone]

Actually its not nasty. I repeated what that freeper said and I used his words and told him/her to do something about it. What’s wrong with that? You like just sitting here on your tush and complaining and blaming Rudy for all the woes in the world? In the meantime I see nothing being done by freepers but blaming Rudy left and right. Look and see - every Abortion thread is about Rudy. Truth is in the pudding. And by the way stop looking for trouble.

[TommyDale]

There is a good reason that every abortion thread is about Rudy. He (and his supporters) are claiming he is against abortion, but he wants to fund them with taxpayer dollars. He said that abortion is a "Contitutional Right" which is absurd. He has been on both sides, and in reality he is pro-abortion and always has been.