Rudy is not an ideal choice to be President, because he is a liberal on the most important social issues. We're all aware of what they are, no need to get into it. But on crime and quality of life, there is no better politician in America. The reason I assume that you are not a NYer, is because you would already know all of this, had you been living here in 1994. Almost over night, NYC returned from unlivable to the greatest city in the world. Graffiti vanished from buildings and subway cars, the crime rate went down. The murder rate went down. Porn shops, massage shops, hookers drug dealers and squeegee guys disappeared. Trash got picked up. Women could go jogging in Central Park at sunset without getting gang raped. Rudy did all this. If he held national office, I have no doubt he'd clean up the world a lot too. I don't want him there, but who wouldn't prefer him to Obama, the same way they'd prefer Zell Miller, or a social liberal like Joe Lieberman.
The point is this: It's nice to be principled, and say “we only accept Conservatives who call themselves Republicans,” but that kind of thinking will lose you every election in NY. There are no conservatives who run for office in NY. It's a wast of time and money, because they can't possibly win. Rudy Giuliani would be infinitely better than Dave Patterson as Governor, the same way he was infinitely better than Dave Dinkins as Mayor. You're rooting for NY to fail if you're rooting against him.
Well said ... Thank You
I remember the culture wars on FR in approx. early summer 2007 in which a number of posters got banished from FR for pro-Rudy posts. That taught me to make bland comments like bttt in my posts to stay on the safe side.