Posted on 04/21/2007 4:13:57 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
With former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani consistently leading early polls for the Republican presidential nomination, pundits have spilled an ocean of ink concerning his electability.
Having recently sat down with the man, let me tell you why I consider Giuliani a candidate wholly appropriate for our times.
As someone who spends a lot of time thinking and writing about globalization and security, I was brought in recently by the Giuliani campaign to discuss these topics with the mayor.
This is standard practice as presidential candidates gear up, and Giuliani's camp is the fourth I've visited in the last year.
I'll make no attempt to describe the mayor's positions on anything we discussed, because that's his job as candidate.
Let me instead give you a sense of what it was like to engage him over a couple of hours on my areas of expertise.
I've interacted with numerous government, military and corporate leaders over the past couple of decades, so I'm able to draw some comparisons.
First off, Giuliani is a serious and wide-ranging reader, not just a skimmer of "bullets" prepared by his staff.
When he reads your stuff, you better remember what you wrote because this guy really absorbs material.
Second, Hizzoner engages you directly versus having his subordinates draw you out.
Typically, you brief the senior player only to have staffers toss out most of the follow-on questions.
With Giuliani, you lay out your basic argument briefly and then it's off to the races. As an experienced prosecutor, the questions flow quickly and to the point.
Third, the mayor's been around this world.
No matter where the conversation wandered, Giuliani had personal contacts or experience or knowledge to draw upon. Better yet, when something came up that he didn't know, the mayor was quick to admit it and toss out questions that drove further exploration.
Fourth, Giuliani likes intellectual debate but doesn't need to dominate.
Everyone around the table has the same opportunity to chime in, but don't expect to be asked. So the atmosphere is competitive but open.
For a famous egoist, I was surprised to find the mayor doesn't mind being interrupted. With a lot of big names, that's strictly verboten in such venues.
Fifth, the mayor seems unusually focused on how to get things rolling as opposed to where things will ultimately end up.
Many senior leaders focus on defining goals to the n-th degree while short-circuiting the how-to-get-there discussion, but Giuliani clearly likes the "how" as much as the "what."
Lastly, as veteran politicians go, when viewed up-close Rudy Giuliani comes off as one happy warrior.
He gives off neither the "angry outsider" nor the "appointed by fate" vibe. Instead, he seems genuinely thrilled at the prospect of tackling a lot of tough issues on a scale even grander than those found in New York City.
The man will never sport a tan, but he's definitely relaxed and ready.
One reason why the current race seems so wide open is that - in historical terms - sitting senators have a very hard time getting elected.
Typically, Americans choose their chief executives from the ranks of governors and wartime heroes, two life experiences that naturally display desired leadership characteristics.
In this age of globalization and our long war against radical extremism, Mayor Giuliani is unusually credentialed to serve as president.
Thomas P.M. Barnett is a visiting scholar at the University of Tennessee's Howard Baker Center and the senior managing director of Enterra Solutions LLC. E-mail him at tom@thomaspmbarnett.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.
Rudy could be a strong candidate for the Democrats.
To all the Rudy haters: Would you have voted for him, or someone like him, in 1996 against Bill Clinton? He couldn’t have done worse than Dole did. Because in case you haven’t noticed, the Democrats can nominate a sock puppet like Kerry and get the support of almost half the country. 2008 is their election to lose. Republicans aren’t exactly popular in the non-Southern states. I will vote for whoever the Republicans nominate, but these people saying they would rather have Hillary over Rudy are nuts.
He IS NOT anti-2nd Amendment.BWAHAHAhahahahaha..........
Tuesday, June 20, 2000Let's repeat from his official archives:
MAYOR GIULIANI AND SPEAKER VALLONE ANNOUNCE CITY LAWSUIT AGAINST GUN INDUSTRYThis 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.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/04/04/giuliani.interview/
Giuliani told Bash that "a strict constructionist judge can come to either conclusion about Roe against Wade. They can look at it and say, 'Wrongly decided. ... We will overturn it.' They can look at it and say, 'It has been the law for this period of time, therefore we are going to respect the precedent.'
While he was the Republican Mayor of New York City he appointed more than 60 men and women to the Civil, Criminal, and Family Court benchs. In all of those judicial appointment only two were Republican.
All of his other judical appointments were either registered Liberals or registered Democrats. As the Republican Mayor he had appointment power over more than 70 full commissioners in more than 50 City agencies, yet at no time during his administration did REPUBLICANS account for more than 10% of those appointments.
He even appointed Chuck Schumers wife as the Citys Department of Transportation Commissioner.
________________________________________________________________
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/9054.html
And even as we grieve for those who lost their lives, and our hearts and prayers go out to the victims and their loved ones, we may be able to find some sort of meaning in this tragedy by using it as a catalyst to revive national gun control efforts.
Rudolph Giuliani
You are promoting a LIBERAL draft-evading Rino. Why?
” If someone sees then together they will assume its his daughter and grandchild..LOL”
Some people could care less what other’s think about them. I seriously doubt Fred cares about what people think. In fact, he should wear it as a badge of honor and be proud of it!
Coming from you—that’s hilarious! ROTFLOL!!
A good thing, no doubt about it.
From your LINK:
***.....GIULIANI: I think the Democrats have a really difficult choice here. Because I think, if they do an all-out opposition to John Roberts, they’re going to really lose credibility, because he is precisely what they’ve been talking about, someone who is extremely well-qualified, someone who’s because he hasn’t been on the court for a long time, someone whose opinions you don’t really know completely, but you kind of get a sense of his general philosophy. If they oppose him, then they are going to oppose anybody that George Bush appoints.
HANNITY: It was yesterday, because yesterday, early in the day, we thought that it was going to be Edith Clement (search). And all the left-wing groups were quick to be sending out faxes.
And then, five minutes after they announced Mr. Roberts, everyone of these groups, theACLU (search), Howard Dean, the DNC, Human Rights Campaign (search), Moveon.org, NARAL, Now, People for the American Way, Alliance for Justice, immediately trashed this guy.
GIULIANI: Right.
HANNITY: I don’t think there was anybody...
GIULIANI: Well, it was inevitable, right? I mean, that part of the process is inevitable. But I think what’s going to happen in the Senate is going to be very interesting to see.
Because I think, if Democrats do an all-out effort against John Roberts, they’re going to lose credibility maybe for another fight that’ll be down the road later. So ultimately I believe they’re going to decide not to go all-out against him. And I think he’s going to get nominated.
HANNITY: Poor Chuck Schumer. You just gave him heart palpitations. He’s going to have a hard time hearing you say that.....***
He'd make a lovely representative for the Democrat Party!
He's Hillary with out the shrill voice!
He's Edwards without the $400 haircut!
He's Obama without the Muslim past!
Don't know how we got stuck with him!
Thompson has a 4 month old! How old is he? LOL. If he runs the late nite comediennes are gonna have a ball with that.
If he weren’t so LIBERAL.
Or, one could be mature/be the bigger person.
Or not...
this sounds like p.r.
Well... there is a 17 year gap between his divorce and his second marriage and he didn't meet her until more than 10 years after his divorce, so I don't think that's going to be much of a problem.
Don’t you know that if Rudy gets the nomination it will be the end (yes I said THE END) of the GOP, and if he wins the election it will spell the end of western civilization! All real true blue Americans support (and will only support) (incert name here) and if they don’t get the nod the plagues of Egypt will fall on American!!!!
__________________________
(Seriously) This election is all about winning, and if Rudy can win then he’s my guy, because the thought of any of thedemocrat candidates sitting in the oval office fills me with dread. And to those who say they’ll never vote for Rudy I say GROW UP!
(for the record) I am a strong pro-lifer, pro-2nd amendment person, and I can and will vote for Rudy if he wins the nomination.
Lighten up! Rooty is a playground for us little kids.
We just want the Rooty toots to come out and play!
Not like the many other articles written about the other candidates.
"Baker has been married to the daughters of two prominent Republicans. Since 1996 he has been married to former U.S. Senator Nancy Landon Kassebaum, the daughter of the late Kansas Governor Alfred M. Landon, who was the Republican nominee for President in 1936. Baker's late first wife, Joy, who died of cancer, was the daughter of former Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen."
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.