Posted on 02/12/2007 7:39:47 AM PST by presidio9
I would not say he was a bum. He would have been reelected mayor if he'd been on the ballot.
Agreed. SOME people hated Giuliani, of course, but even before 9/11 he was famous all over as the guy who helped clean up New York.
Personally I like the guy but that doesn't make him presidential material.
I was growing disenchanted with Rudy's behavior as Mayor prior to September 11th...but a "bum"?
Nope. Anybody with a brain remembered Dinkins and knew exactly what a "bum" was.
Yep, the thugs, crooks and leeches hated him!
If I remember correctly, you were living in New York City back then (as was I). Sure the press had turned on him by then, but what was not to like about him? Compare him to Dinkins and Bloomberg, and you appreciate how hard the job was BEFORE 9/11 and how excellent he was at it. I don't want Rudy Giuliani to be president, but he may have been the best mayor NYC ever had.
Yep, the Democrat base hated him!
Great on Seinfeld; terrible on SNL.
That he DID do.
As far as hero... not by a long shot. The hero's on 9/11 exist... but a majority of them lost their lives becoming one. Giuliani was merely a steady hand... one of many in a terrible debacle... no more a hero than a king.
You're getting your political opinons from Village Voice senior editors these days? Why not turn your allegiance over to Hillary right now?
Using the revered term "hero" for a political opportunist like RINO-rudy irks the sh*t out of me.
TRUE heroes are those selfless individuals, like our military personnel, our policemen, and our firefighters, who put their very LIVES on the line on a regular basis so that others may live.
RINO-rudy is nothing more than a career politician that has made a VERY GOOD (better than he deserves) living sucking off the hind teet that is the forced (at the end of a government gun barrel) RAPE (taxation above and beyond what is actually necessary) of citizens hard-earned money.
Using the term "hero" for a northeastern-corridor inner-city liberal RINO like rudy, is almost as bad as rudy's fellow gun-grabbing scumbag, chuckie schumer, saying that he has "served his country" (as an F'ing POLITICIAN?!) for X number of years. He throws that term about as if HE has put HIS life on the line for others, like our brave men and women of the armed forces.
What a SAD joke.
ANYONE who believes EITHER of these liberal butt-buddies is good for AMERICA, is a FOOL.
Rudy's track record was always one of being the storm in the face of calm then being the face of calm in a big storm...
I disagree. This city was in the midst of some serious Rudy fatigue, tired of his messy personal life.
On 9/10, he was a lame duck looking for a legacy.
You remember correctly. Guess I should've qualified things further.
I was growing disenchanted with Giuliani versus "earlier Giuliani". I felt he was growing bored and over-reaching into certain areas that he didn't need to.
That said I remember, and remembered then, well what he did for the city after the Dinkins disaster. I'd make Rudy "Mayor for life" if I could.
Giuliani earned the title hero for being the son of a convicted mobster who faced down death threats and put other mobsters in jail.
If you remember, there was a lot of support at the time for scrapping democracy and extending his term.
btt
His personal life had very little (if anything) to do with "Rudy fatigue." Let's look at the context, a tough-nosed and fiscal conservative mayor in liberal NYC. Not the suburbs, liberal NYC. When faced with a crime crisis the libs were happy to bring in a law and order salvation, but once the problem was solved then many of them were going back to their old ways, wanting someone to pursue more liberal agendas. Plus when times are good people have a natural inclination to start taking things for granted and getting restless for change. The same way the UK dumped Churchill after WWII and the US gave Bush 41 sky-high ratings after the Gulf War but then voted him out soon after.
I was in north Jersey when he was running for Senate, and he was in the lead before he dropped out. If he had a 40% approval in NYC in 8/01 (and remember that was a prety much a low ebb in the ups and downs, GOP approval ratings always go up as elections near and voters are faced with just 2 choices) then it means he would easily win statewide or nationally, given how liberal NYC is. Virtually all of those with "Rudy fatigue" felt that he was too conservative, not too liberal.
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