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]

So whom do you think ANY of the Democrats will appoint to the Supreme Court?!

[EternalVigilance]

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

He thumbed his nose at the law and Congress to keep a couple hundred thousand illegal alien foreign nationals in his city.

Doesn't that count for something?

;-)

[merry10]

ewww, calling people RINOs. How mature.

[merry10]

Duncan Hunter is winning in the matchup btw him and Rudy Giuliani in the Scientific FR poll posted on the lower right hand corner of your screen.

[LtdGovt]

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

Yeah! If he's nominated, I'm voting for Hillary so that BJ (the lesser of the two evils) can get back into the White House. /s

[spikeytx86]

Oh gasp, I have been called a RINO. (bursts into uncontrollable sobbing)

[EternalVigilance]

So whom do you think ANY of the Democrats will appoint to the Supreme Court?!

Giuliani got to pick 100 judges as Mayor.

He told Hugh Hewitt how important that task was to him.

Name me five who were Republicans...Giuliani "Republicans" even.

[quantim]

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

Anything else, is purely academic. That's why he's leading consistently in the polls, hello.

Others will figure it out soon enough.

Hunterites don't understand that the nation won't elect a legislator for POTUS.

And thank Heavens, that goes for senators in spite of an occasional scary close call.

[Jorge]

Oh gasp, I have been called a RINO. (bursts into uncontrollable sobbing)

LOL

[PhiKapMom]

If anyone would like to join the Rudy for President 2008 ping list, please freep mail areafiftyone or let us know on the thread with a ping.

Thanks,

PKM

[SIDENET]

So again: you have the choice Hillary vs. Rudy.

The primaries haven't even taken place yet.

[spikeytx86]

"In fact, if you have one in your family - don't tell ANYBODY!"

I always thought the proper thing was to lock them in the basement? /s LOL

[FairOpinion]

"Giuliani got to pick 100 judges as Mayor."

"Name me five who were Republicans...Giuliani "Republicans" even."

Why don't YOU prove your insinuation that every one was a Democrat which I do NOT believe.

[Jorge]

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.

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

[LtdGovt]

Name me five who were Democrats or Independents.

[mkjessup]

"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.

OK, I'll play. Let's say (hypothetically) that is was someone like Mitt Romney. Do you vote for the 'Rat nominee (Rudy) or do you go with Romney?

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.

That is nothing but absolutism. If both candidates equally stink, your vote is still going to bring you the aroma of dead fish on the morning after Election Day.

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.

Don't count your Rudys before they hatch (or at least until they make it through the primaries intact. I'd lay even odds that as the media puts a brighter and brighter spotlight on Rudy, he may decide that it's not worth that kind prying into his personal history, and just like he did in 2000, he'll withdraw from the race in question.

Hillary is likewise, not automatically assured of the 'Rat nomination. It's too easy to forget that it is over a year before the primary process will be completed, and the respective nominating conventions of each major party convened, and THAT is a political eternity.

A LOT can happen between now and then.

[mkjessup]

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)

Duncan Hunter would eat Hillary's lunch in a debate on national security. And of all the candidates, only Duncan Hunter has been called 'magnificent' by noneother than Ann Coulter.

As I've said already, it's still early in this race.

[sockmonkey]

So again: you have the choice Hillary vs. Rudy.

I see so little difference in the two of them, I would probably stay home on election day.

[EternalVigilance]

All but two, from the evidence that I've been able to glean out of Giuliani's supporters.

[FairOpinion]

"Hillary is likewise, not automatically assured of the 'Rat nomination"


So you wouldn't mind President Barack Hussein Obama ?