Giuliani's Conservative Credentials

Record of leadership
Historian Fred Siegel's book of Rudy Giuliani's record as mayor, The Prince of the City, describes the holistic dysfunction that greeted Giuliani.

Today, New York City thrives. Unemployment one month after 9/11 stood at 6.3 percent. Homicides had plummeted 65 percent, mainly in once-crime-infested black and Hispanic neighborhoods. Asked once what he had done for minorities, Giuliani responded: "They are alive, how about we start with that?"…

The city is visibly cleaner and more robust. Amazingly enough, Reader's Digest in June dubbed once-abrasive New York the world's politest city, a notch above placid, fastidious Zurich.

The City’s path from chaos to courtesy closely parallels Giuliani's journey from freshly minted mayor to globally lauded leader. How did he do it?...

Giuliani, who considers himself a Reaganite, did so largely by applying conservative principles of tax reduction, fiscal responsibility, privatization, law and order, and colorblindness. He sounded Reaganesque as mayor-elect when he said to balance the city budget, "we have to increase the number of private-sector jobs." Central to this was "to reduce the size and cost of city government…."

Pro-growth tax-cutter
Rudy Giuliani has proven, both during his tenure as mayor of New York and through his subsequent rhetoric, that he is a pro-growth Republican in the mold of Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, and Newt Gingrich. As mayor, Giuliani cut city taxes by more than eight billion dollars, reducing the tax burden on New Yorkers by 22%. Giuliani’s low-tax views remain intact. As Race42008.com noted, Rudy’s recent visit to Minnesota included an emphasis on achieving economic growth via low taxes and less regulation on the economy.

Giuliani cut the commercial-rent tax; he cut sales taxes, including taxes on clothing; he cut the marriage penalty on taxpaying couples; he cut taxes on commercial rents everywhere outside of Manhattan’s major business districts; and he cut various taxes on small businesses and self-employed New Yorkers. He cut NYC's hotel tax from 6% to 5%. Consequently, hotel tax revenues increased from $135 million in Fiscal Year 1995 to $239 million in FY 2001.

"The thing that probably disturbs me the most when I read the New York Times editorials, they've kind of turned around the whole idea of cutting taxes, and they make tax increases morally courageous," Giuliani said. "I have no idea what is courageous about raising taxes. I understand it's courageous to run into a fire and take somebody out, but I can't figure out what's courageous about raising taxes. I don't understand why you would think that in an economy that's essentially a private economy, it makes more sense and is more efficient for the government to confiscate more of that money."

Giuliani made these remarks to the Manhattan Institute, an influential think tank well regarded by conservatives and libertarians alike. He credits the organization and its quarterly magazine, City Journal, with inspiring many of his reforms.

Giuliani's tax record matches his rhetoric. He cut or eliminated 23 levies totaling $8 billion. He slashed municipal tax revenues' share of personal income by 18.9 percent and the top local income-tax rate by 21 percent. Asked after September 11 if he would hike taxes, Giuliani was refreshingly blunt, calling that "a dumb, stupid, idiotic, and moronic thing to do…."

Rudy Giuliani characterized his economic philosophy this way: “City government should not and cannot create jobs through government planning. The best it can do, and what it has a responsibility to do, is to deal with its own finances first, to create a solid budgetary foundation that allows businesses to move the economy forward on the strength of their energy and ideas. After all, businesses are and have always been the backbone of New York City.”

Government reformer
Conservatives who liked Newt’s welfare reform and President Bush’s attempt at entitlement reform have an ally in Rudy. Giuliani launched a welfare revolution, removing illegal recipients, cutting the rolls by 20% the first year alone and dropping the welfare rolls by 600,000 over the course of his plan. He launched a work requirement program for the remaining welfare recipients. The New York Times called his program “slavery.”

As mayor, Giuliani reformed welfare in New York with the same tenacity as the class of ‘94 in Congress. A President Giuliani means a conservative reformer who will fight for market-based revisions to our age-old bureaucratic messes in Washington.

Fiscal conservative
As mayor, Rudy Giuliani cut the New York City government payroll by 19%, eliminating unnecessary civil servants from the public dole. Can anyone remember the last time a Republican president was able to send lazy federal workers packing? While hiring 12 percent more police officers and 12.8 percent more teachers, Giuliani sliced municipal manpower elsewhere by 17.2 percent, from 117,494 workers in 1993 to 97,338 in 2001. Inheriting a multi-billion dollar deficit, Rudy turned it into a surplus, delivering eight consecutive balanced budgets.

Giuliani's expenditure growth averaged 2.9 percent annually, while local inflation between January 1994 and December 2001 averaged 3.6 percent. His fiscal 1995 budget decreased outlays by 1.6 percent, while his post-9/11 fiscal 2002 plan lowered appropriations by 2.6 percent.

Conservative judicial philosophy
Social conservatives who want to see Roe v. Wade overturned and who fear the imposition of same-sex marriage on unwilling populations by judicial fiat have a friend in Rudy Giuliani. He has now explicitly voiced support for the appointment of strict constructionists to the federal bench. He recently committed to appointing justices like Roberts and Alito. He also confirmed that he believes that legislatures, and not judges, should set public policy. A Giuliani presidency would almost certainly fail to yield judicial rulings from the federal bench in favor of gay marriage, and would be at least as likely as any other Republican presidency to see abortion returned to the legislative process, where it belongs.

Pragmatic traditional values – with results
Minors in foster care fell from 47,509 in December 1993 to 28,700 in 2001. While only 2,312 children were adopted in New York City in 1994, cumulative adoptions swelled to 27,949 between then and 2001. This effort was led by Nicholas Scoppetta – a one-time Justice Department colleague of Giuliani's and current FDNY commissioner – himself a former foster child.

Giuliani has also spoken in very traditional terms about parental responsibility. "Seventy percent of long-term prisoners and 75 percent of adolescents charged with murder grew up without a father," Giuliani said in his January 14, 1999 State of the City speech. “So, I guess if you wanted a social program that would really save these kids, a lot better than the City of New York, the United States Congress, the Social Welfare Agency, and Administration for Children Services, I guess the social program would be called fatherhood.”

As mayor, Giuliani made clear his belief in traditional marriage only; that marriage should be defined as being between a man and a woman, and in no other form. Said Rudy: “I believe that marriage should be between a man and a woman, that it should remain that way, it should remain that way inviolate, and everything should be done to make sure that that’s the case.”

Some social conservatives are uncomfortable that Rudy doesn’t support amending the Constitution to make sure this definition of marriage stands. But many conservatives also oppose amending the Constitution toward this end. But Giuliani has made clear that he’ll do whatever it takes to maintain the traditional definition of marriage; he just thinks the constitutional amendment is the wrong strategy right now. As long as judges like Roberts and Alito are on the bench — the type that Rudy would appoint as president — a constitutional amendment would be unnecessary.

"He is America's most successful conservative currently in office," columnist George Will wrote in 19989. "He understands that culture, more than politics, determines a community's success, and he has devised policies to dirve cultural change in a conservative direction."

Privatization
Giuliani shrank the 33,000-unit portfolio of city-owned apartments by 69.8 percent. Families and individual residents now occupy those private homes. He sold WNYC-AM, WNYC-FM, WNYC-TV, and NYC's equity in the U.N. Plaza Hotel. He let the private Central Park Conservancy manage all 843 acres of Manhattan's beloved urban forest. He divested the city from the New York Coliseum adding $345 million to the city treasury.

Racial quotas
Giuliani ran on the slogan “One standard, one city,” in 1993, and then immediately implemented it. During his first month as mayor, Giuliani scrapped the city's 20 percent set-asides for minority- and female-owned contractors, and a 10 percent price premium that such companies could charge above the bids of white, male competitors.

Rudy rejected the idea of lowering the job requirement standards for minorities and woman. He said, "It was unfair to expect middle-class kids to work their way through college by holding down jobs and going to classes while exempting students on welfare from working.”

As Giuliani explained at a December 3, 1997 Manhattan Institute forum, “I, number one, thought that was very bad public policy. The city shouldn't be paying 10 percent more. Remember, I was dealing with a city that had about a $3 billion deficit at the time. How we could possibly pay 10 percent more for anything seemed incomprehensible to me.

“And second... the whole idea of quotas to me perpetuates discrimination. It has exactly the opposite effect on people who support quotas think it would have. So, I did away with it.”

Crime and Quality of Life
Giuliani has said that "government exists above all to keep people safe in their homes and in the streets, not to redistribute income, run a welfare state, or perform social engineering." And he backed this all up by going after both quality-of-life crimes and serious crimes.

During his tenure as mayor, total crime went down by some 64 percent in New York City, and the incidence of murder went down 67 percent. Auto thefts went down on average about 80,000 per year.

Giuliani went after both low level and high level drug dealers for the first time in the city’s history. He had zero-tolerance for quality of life crimes such as squeegee extortionists, graffiti vandals, panhandling and public urination.

Anyone who thinks Giuliani is a liberal should walk through Times Square. A dozen years ago, it was a gritty, dangerous place, brimming with litter, vagrants, and pornography shops. It now teems with tourists, restaurants, concert venues, broadcast studios for ABC and MTV, and the NASDAQ market site. At the Minskoff Theater, Disney's “The Lion King” thrills moms, dads, and kids. Next door, at the Amsterdam Theater, Mary Poppins opens this fall.

Education
Giuliani pulls no punches on schools, either. As he said in the June 16, 1994 Newsday, "If you give the Board of Education more money, you end up with something like the old Soviet Union."

Giuliani scrapped tenure for principals and dumped social promotion, which matriculated pupils even when they could not perform grade-level work. He also launched a Charter School Fund and openly advocated vouchers, traveling to Milwaukee in May 2001 to embrace its school-choice successes. Giuliani worked, as well, with John Cardinal O'Connor and Rabbi Morris Sherer in 1996 to make available to underachieving public-school students as many as 2,000 privately funded seats in Catholic and Jewish parochial schools.

"The one area that I would emphasize... is choice and vouchers," Giuliani said, warmly embracing the "V" word. "The only thing that I believe is going to change dramatically public education in this country is to go to a choice system and break up the monopoly,” he said, and, “The whole notion of choice is really about more freedom for people, rather than being subjugated by a government system that says you have no choice about the education of your child."

Immigration and Terrorism
An essential component of national security includes securing America’s borders. While John McCain and Mitt Romney discuss “comprehensive” solutions, Rudy is ready to do what it takes to prevent individuals from illegally entering the United States. During a visit to Minnesota, he laid out his immigration plan, which begins with sealing the borders and also involves ensuring that immigrants learn English so that they can be better assimilated into American culture. As such, Rudy is to the right of President Bush on this issue.

Giuliani sees immigration and terrorism in tandem. "In an era of a War on Terrorism," he said, "how do we create more security?" He argues against what he calls the House of Representatives' "punitive approach." Giuliani worries law-enforcement officers will be so busy handling "a system that's already unenforceable" that they won't "focus on the people that we have to focus on who... might come here to carry out terrorist acts or to sell drugs or to commit crimes." He wants tighter U.S. borders and high-tech identification for immigrants.

Giuliani favors the U.S. Senate's proposal. "Give people a way to earn citizenship in which they have to demonstrate facility with English, and they have jobs, and they're paying taxes, and they've put themselves in an entirely legal status... It'll be much harder for terrorists to hide in a situation like that…"

Tough enough to take on the bad guys
Rudy tossed Yasir Arafat out of a city-sponsored celebrations saying, "I would rather not have someone who has been implicated in the murders of Americans there, if I have the discretion not to have him there. My only regret is that I wasn’t able to throw him out myself.” Rudy did the same to Fidel Castro. When a Saudi prince donated millions to 9/11 relief efforts and later suggested that United States policy in the Middle East may have been partially responsible for the attacks, Rudy returned the money.

Unlike the Democrats, who are too nuanced to acknowledge that the “bad guys” in life even exist, Rudy Giuliani knows how to identify a threat to safety and security and pound that threat into submission. Giuliani’s record on crime in NYC is well-documented; if Rudy is able to do to the terrorists what he did to the crime lords of New York City, Americans will once again be able to feel secure in an uncertain world.

Giuliani understands the party he’s leading
Having campaigned for Republican candidates in 42 states during the 2004 and 2006 elections, Rudy Giuliani understands that he’s campaigning to lead the party of the sunbelt — a party that is more pro-life and pro-gun than his New York constituents. As such, the mayor has given no indication that he will turn his presidency into some sort of pro-abortion, pro-gun control crusade, and every indication that he will defer to his base, and to the states. At the very least, Giuliani appears prepared to do no harm to conservatives on these issues while promising to advance their causes via the appointment of conservative judges.

Rudy Giuliani is absolutely electable
Rudy Giuliani is probably the most electable Republican in the country right now. In fact, it would be very difficult to imagine a scenario in which he would lose to any Democrat, and the mayor would easily trounce the Gore/Kerry sort of Democrat that the left insists on nominating time after time. If Hillary or Gore is the nominee in 2008, Rudy would win the electoral college in a walk (see the electoral map on http://www.surveyusa.com). Here’s why.

First, the impact of an ethnic Catholic leading a presidential ticket must not be understated. The entire industrial north is a region filled with Catholics of eastern and southern European descent. This includes states like Pennsylvania and Michigan, which went for John Kerry by only two and three percentage points in 2004, respectively. Identity politics alone would likely garner Giuliani a couple of extra percentage points across the industrial northeast, just as President Bush likely benefited from his southern evangelical status in states filled with southern evangelicals.

Secondly, Rudy’s fiscally-conservative profile is very similar to the Republican executives elected by the voters of states like Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. By reminding upper-midwestern voters of their favorite governors, like Tommy Thompson, John Engler, and Tom Ridge, Rudy would likely garner another few points out of the blue states of the north and northeast.

Rudy’s ethnic Catholic, working class background, combined with his Rust Belt-style positions on the issues, he should be able to increase the GOP presidential ticket’s vote share by five percent from 2004 across the Rust Belt, which includes the states bordered by Minnesota and Iowa in the west and New Jersey in the east. The result of this sort of a swing would send the following states into the “red” column: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.? That’s another 58 electoral votes for the GOP ticket.

Now, what if Giuliani’s northeast roots, and more benign views on socially conservative issues lose a few points across the South? Let’s assume that Rudy’s presidential ticket loses five points from Bush’s 2004 totals in every single southern state simply because he’s a) not an evangelical, b) he can’t call himself pro-life, and c) he’s not for amending the Constitution to ban gay marriage. Let’s see how many southern states Rudy loses with that five point loss across the South…

In fact, the only state that would be teetering on the edge with a five point reduction in the South from Bush’s 2004 numbers would be Florida, a state filled with ex-New-Yorkers who would almost certainly make up for any sort of Bush-Giuliani gap in the region. The fact of the matter is simply that the GOP has succeeded in Republicanizing the South to the extent that most southern states are simply no longer in danger of turning “blue” during a presidential election, especially against a Democrat like Hillary Clinton.

Social conservatives’ concerns
In an article entitled “Rudy’s Electoral Math,” a blogger for race42008.com made the comment that, “The notion that Rudy Giuliani will…mirror the Democratic nominee on social issues is just not correct…We’re running a candidate who, while personally not conservative on many social issues, will govern as a functional social conservative on most of the big issues cultural conservatives care about.”

On gun regulation, Giuliani has not proposed any new federal controls, and defers to the localities to determine what or whether to regulate firearms. On this, he is a solid proponent of states’ rights. So much for the “gun-grabber” charge.

The same with gay rights. Giuliani is on record saying that marriage is between a man and a woman, and that this distinction is to be respected. When he did not support the defense of marriage constitutional amendment proposal, neither did a number of conservatives who do not believe that the U.S. Constitution should be amended to address this issue. The fact of the matter is that voters in individual states – from Oregon, to California, to Ohio, to Michigan…27 states in all – are stepping up to either affirmatively declare marriage as between a man and a woman, or are specifically banning gay marriage. Giuliani’s stance on states’ rights would oppose federal action to overturn the state-led initiatives on this issue. So much for the “gay-lover” charge.

And the same with abortion. Despite his personal views, Giuliani has pledged to appoint originalists to the federal judiciary. In the 30-plus years since Roe v. Wade, there has been only one major pro-life legislative victory – the passage and signing by President Bush of a ban on partial-birth abortions. One victory in over 30 years – a span of time that saw two strongly pro-life presidents in Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, and 12 years of Republican control of Congress. The partial-birth abortion ban has been challenged in the courts, which indicates that it is in the courts that these issues will ultimately be won or lost. Hence, Giuliani’s intention to appoint originalists to the courts should be considered the most important pro-life impact that the next president will have. It may be that his appointments to the Supreme Court will be better, and more conservative, than Reagan’s. Giuliani has said that he will sign a partial-birth abortion ban which includes an exemption for the life of the mother. The pro-abortion Democrats want an exemption for the “health” of the mother. There’s a big difference. “Life” would provide an exemption where the mother’s life is in danger if natural delivery proceeds (and this should be rendered a non-factor because of cesarean delivery in the event of an emergency). An exemption from abortion prohibitions for the “health” of the mother, as favored by the pro-abortion Democrats, has been used as a catch-all exemption as “health” has come to include “mental health,” meaning that if a pregnancy or having a child might create “stress” for the mother, this is enough to fall within the “health” criterion, and would lead to aborting the child. He also supports parental notification before minors can obtain an abortion, which is a long-time goal of pro-life organizations. Giuliani’s position, from appointment of originalists to the courts, to the distinction in his position on partial-birth abortion from that of the pro-abortion left, is reason to calm the fears, and rebut the hysterical charges of rightist extremists, that he’s a “baby-killer.”

Rudy Giuliani’s approach to these socially conservative issues is to de-federalize the issues, take them out of the gridlocked politics of Washington, and allow the states to decide them. Rudy Giuliani is the most pro-states’ rights presidential candidate we’ve seen in decades…maybe ever. What’s not conservative about that?

It should be clear to all that our nation is deeply divided, right down the middle, ideologically. The presidential elections of 2000 and 2004 showed a deep schism among American voters, and that schism is getting harder and deeper. This division has turned American into two warring camps, and has made each election a nail-biter as results of the last two presidential elections could have turned on the shift of only about 1.5% of the vote. This divide has also imposed a rigid gridlock in Washington on the whole list of so-called “socially conservative” issues. There’s no budge on either side, and consequently the chances of enacting any of the social conservative agenda is worse than slim and none.

The only way to break this political and ideological gridlock isn’t to surrender socially conservative principles, but to move these issues through a different approach. It’s been said that “Only Nixon could go to China,” because of his life-long record as an anti-communist. It may well be that only Rudy Giuliani can move this nation away from the opposing political encampments it’s become, and allow the people – not the federal government, not the Congress – to make progress on issues that reflect what is the inherent social conservatism of the American people.

“It is the greatness of the United States that daunting challenges inevitably summon to the fore leaders with the steel to rise to the occasion and the grasp to raise us up with them. Leaders whose confidence and command cut through the noise and the naysayers. Leaders who stir us not only to the urgency of action but to the achievability of victory through America’s exceptional gifts. Rudy Giuliani is such a leader. In our perilous times, his is the unique combination of vision, guts, and perseverance that we need in the Oval Office. That’s why I hope we have the good sense to make him the next president of the United States.” -- Andrew McCarthy (“Giuliani for President: Leadership Inspires Early Endorsement;” NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE)

“Further, [the] argument that Rudy couldn’t survive without the support of the GOP base is very true. As such, it’s a good thing that Rudy has been able to attain the support of that very base. Rudy generally garners between 85% and 90% of Republicans in a hypothetical matchup against a standard blue-state Democrat like Hillary Clinton. These numbers are just ever-so-slightly shy of Bush’s 90-plus percent GOP support against Kerry in 2004. And while it’s true that Rudy’s support among independents and Democrats will fluctuate, it’s probably also true that Rudy will at least win independents in the general election, which the president couldn’t do two years ago. Given those considerations, it’s hard to see how Rudy can be viewed as anything other than supremely electable. -- race42008.com

“I've known (Rudy Giuliani) for 26 years and we've talked about this many times," Olson said. "He feels very strongly that people like Justice Scalia, Chief Justice Roberts, Sam Alito, Clarence Thomas, are the type of people that he would put on the court…I'm quite convinced that this is a genuine viewpoint that he has." – Ted Olson, Solicitor General of the United States

"Giuliani is perfectly suited to lead today’s sunbelt center-right GOP due to his belief in low taxes, fiscal responsibility, market-based government reform, traditional marriage, conservative judges, securing the borders, and, last but certainly not least, the destruction of the terrorist threat against America. Only Rudy can package all of this conservatism in a manner that appeals to large numbers of swing voters while still maintaining solid levels of support among the Republican base." -- "The Conservative Case for Rudy Giuliani in 2008"

"...When you talk about issues related to fiscal conservatism, which are important to Rudy, I don't know anybody in the public arena who has cut taxes 23 times as Rudy did when he was mayor of New York; who has shrunk the size of government, which he did when he was mayor of New York; reduced the welfare rolls by over 50 percent, which he did when he was mayor of New York. And that's not going into reducing crime by 65% and many other things that he did while mayor in a situation that, before he became mayor, was widely regarded as the second toughest job in American politics, and was widely regarded as an ungovernable situation." -- Bill Simon, GOP candidate for California governor in 2002.

“By the time Giuliani challenged Dinkins for a second time, in 1993 (his first try had failed), the former prosecutor had fashioned a philosophy of local government based on two core conservative principles vastly at odds with New York’s political culture: that government should be accountable for delivering basic services well, and that ordinary citizens should be personally responsible for their actions and their destiny and not expect government to take care of them." -- Steven Malanga ("Yes, Rudy Giuliani is a Conservative," CITY JOURNAL)

“[Giuliani] is positively Reaganite on taxes, spending, public order, quality of life, welfare reform, school choice, racial preferences, privatization, shrinking bureaucracy, Americanization of immigrants, fatherhood, moving foster kids into adoptive families, pulverizing Islamo-fascism, and maintaining peace through strength.” – DeRoy Murdock, (“Mean Mr. Giuliani’ Would Bring Toughness to Washington,” HUMAN EVENTS)

"Rudy Giuliani is the conservative in the race." -- Former Cong. Jim Nussle, pro-life fiscal conservative and one of the architects of the 1994 Republican Revolution

“SayNoToRudy.Org’s online retreat also impresses. As the Ohio-based website’s self-described, social-conservative organizers stated November 5: ‘We sought to do everything legally possible to prevent [Giuliani] from becoming the Republican presidential nominee. Unexpectedly, as we began to see more and more of who Mr. Giuliani really is, we found that Mr. Giuliani is truly a committed Republican and an accomplished conservative on many issues. Therefore, the creators of this organization, with much humility and apology, beyond all probability, hereby announce that we are willing to endorse Mr. Giuliani for the Presidency in 2008.’” -- Right Rudy, race42008.com

Articles about Rudy Giuliani
(The text of this document is a compilation of some of the following articles.)

Time Magazine's Man of the Year (2001) --
http://www.time.com/time/subscriber/poy2001/poyopener.html

Culture Warrior: Don't write off Giuliani's appeal to social conservatives. --
http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bminiter/?id=110009659

Rudy's Right: What Makes Giuliani the Best Choice for America in '08 --
http://www.nypost.com/seven/12102006/postopinion/opedcolumnists/why_rudys_right_opedcolumnists_richard_brookhiser.htm?page=0

Yes, Rudy Giuliani is a Conservative --
http://city-journal.org/html/17_1_rudy_giuliani.html

Giuliani for President --
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YjA5MzhhYTk5N2E2NzI3MTgwYWU4OTNkMWEyYWNhZWQ=

Rudy’s Electoral Math – http://race42008.com/2007/02/23/rudy-electoral-math/

People who have called Rudy's achievements in NYC one of the greatest fiscal, urban and govermental achievements of the 20th century.

Newt Gingrich:
"He is much stronger than anyone could have predicted six months ago," said former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich from Georgia. "New York is four times safer than it used to be. It's one of the greatest achievements of government capability (that's fiscal responsibility for the dimbulbs around here) in the 20th century. And Rudy just has to go out and say, 'This is who I am. If you think the world's dangerous, and you need a tough guy … that's me.' "

George Will:
As George Will said on “This Week,” “His eight years as mayor of New York were the most successful episode of conservative governance in this country in the last 50 years, on welfare and crime particularly." Giuliani, more than any other candidate (Romney comes the closest) has the record of taking on major institutions and reforming them. Think about tourist magnet that is New York now. When Rudy Giuliani took office, 59% of New Yorkers said they would leave the city the next day if they could. Under Rudy Giuliani’s leadership as Mayor of the nation’s largest city, murders were cut from 1,946 in 1993 to 649 in 2001, while overall crime – including rapes, assaults, burglary and auto-thefts – fell by an average of 57%. Not only did he fight crime in Gotham like Batman, despite being constantly vilified by the New York Times, he took head on the multiculturalism and victimization perpetuated by Al Sharpton and his cohort of race baiters. He ended New York’s set-aside program for minority contractors and rejected the idea of lowering standards for minorities. As far as the economy goes, Rudy reduced or eliminated 23 city taxes. He faced a $2.3 billion budget deficit but cut spending instead hiking taxes.

The rebirth of New York City, the most visible urban achievement in the 20th century is the work of the person now dubbed America’s mayor. For the millions of Americans who live in New York and the millions more who work or whose livelihood has been affected by its revival the contrast between the pre and post Giuliani years could not be more striking.

http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1780064/posts

Very good post. About the only thing I think I missed was concerning his stand on gun control. He's portrayed as a gun grabber because he thinks they should be tight requirements on gun ownership in urban areas, to the point where it becomes virtually impossible for average citizens to own them.

I disagree with Rudy on this, but I do not believe for a minute that he would try to push this to the federal level once elected to the WH. My sense is that he will move toward the right on this if elected.

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