January 03, 2008
2008 Resolution : Elect Rudy Giuliani President
Rudy Giuliani has been the target of a pretty aggressive media campaign of the last month to six weeks. They've caused some of his poll numbers to go down. Well, don't count him out yet. This guy can take a punch, and expect him to make the strongest of comebacks the minute the Iowa results are in.
This guy has more talent, and far more history of getting things done than all the Republican and Democratic candidates combined.
I'm a lifelong New York resident. I lived through the historic crime reduction that he managed through his eight years. As a kid, we used to leave the doors unlocked when going out for short errands. Now, after the Giuliani crime reductions, I again leave the door unlocked when going out for short errands.
Before Giuliani, I bought a car, which I parked on the streets of Bay Ridge. I, and nearly all of my motorist neighbors would lock a "Club" security device on the steering wheel before leaving the parked car. Now nearly nobody uses the Club anymore in Bay Ridge, or elsewhere in Brooklyn.
Those are my personal leading indicators.
There are some who like to say that the reduction in crime happened everywhere ( it didn't ) or that someone else, even the feckless David Dinkins, deserves credit for being the prime mover in the historic reduction in the crime rate in my city. In my borough of Brooklyn. In my neighborhood of Bay Ridge. On my block of 68th Street. I saw it happen, and I know why it happened.
I worked in the World Trade Center. I saw how Mayor Giuliani helped heal my city in the terrible hours and days after the unimaginable happened. My city and my country could have fallen into a cycle of fear, terror, and street riots after such disaster. This did not happen. He is a big part of the reason that it didn't happen.
This candidate is neither a liberal nor a conservative as most would define those terms. He's something entirely new in American politics.
He's not a actor, a preacher, a trial lawyer, or a former President's spouse. He's an brilliant manager and a fine leader who has accomplished a lot. And now he's ready to lead the United States of America.
We'll address this issue again from time to time.
Rudy for President!
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17 comments:
There is a virtual primary poll for who would best represent Bay Ridge as President of the United States of America over at
Right in Bay Ridge
Right
Just voted. My man is currently tied with "None"!
Ehh, I dunno about this.
Seems you are having yourself an ice cold mug of the Giuliani Kool-Aid.
Oh and "The Club"? The only reason people stopped using that thing was because everyone realised it didn't work and thieves could steal your car regardless of "The Club". It was a fad.
Have you seen the documentary
"Giuliani Time"? It's quite interesting.
I'm all for a safer city and a safer world like we had back in the utopian 50's but not the hosed down Disneyland / Anytown U.S.A. Giuliani dreamt of.
I happen to prefer the Times Square of old. The guy playing saxophone behind the manhole steam, the hookers, the strip clubs... at least it had character!
What do we have now? A giant Olive Garden and the megalithic M&M Candy Store?
Times Square became a place where tourists could feel at HOME and New Yorkers could feel like they were in Minnesota... at the Mall of America.
Not to mention prior to 9/11 most people equated Giuliani with Hitler.
After 9/11 Giuliani did most certainly fashion himself as a modern day Winston Churchill.
He went from hated to beloved and wears 9/11 on his sleeve to this day which I find quite cheap, for lack of a better word.
He was so hated that the people of NYC elected him mayor, and then re-elected him four years later.
I saw the old Times Square, and I saw some of the crime ( drug dealing, purse snatching, etc ) there too. Its much better now. Though I do miss the movie theaters that gave you two Bruce Lee movies for one admission.
Rudy's coming back bit time. You heard it here first.
Oh, and the Club thing?
It was widely used for 15 years and its use fell off a cliff EXACTLY around the time that car thefts decreased which was EXACTLY when Rudy and Commissioner Bratton had been in power for a bit.
Believe car alarm sales are down now too.
Its all a big coincidence!
Somewhere along the way Rudy Giuliani went from being a reviled modern day Robert Moses to a revered Winston Churchill. In fact, I think it happened at sun down on September 11th. This isn't my EXCLUSIVE viewpoint, (un)fortunately.
Remember all the hooplah about your boy Rudy rooting for the Red Sox a few months ago?
Well that is EXACTLY the reason why Giuliani would never win a presidential election.
Not because he's flip flopping his allegiance to a stupid baseball team but because Giuliani simply BELONGS to New York. Like Ed Koch and David Dinkins.
Love him or hate him, Giuliani is a New York phenom; the rest of the country couldn't care less about the dude!
He may as well have a "Property of New York" stamp on his fivehead.
If New Yorkers were so incensed over this "turncoat" move (read: political) then Giuliani is fucked.
If Rudy doesn't have New York City on lock down he's got no foundation at all!
People in the mid-West are still learning how to say his last name!
The "Yankee Fan-In-Chief" was on the cover of both NY papers and there were 3 million articles about it online. The dude is toast right out of the bag.
Whether you agree or not that he was Hitler-esque pre-9/11 and became Churchillian post-9/11, now he's just your garden variety politician on the early bird campaign trail.
There is no way Rudolph Giuliani will be President.
P.S. - Same goes for Bloomberg. The only thing he's got over Rudy is money. Maybe he can buy his way further down the line but Bloomberg is a NY thing. Like dirty water dogs and the 4 train.
Car alarm sales are down because they don't work. Alarms sound all night and nothing happens. No one bats an eye.Crime in NY went down under Rudy and Bratton, sure, and as technology advanced cars became harder to steal and more people began using silent GPS-type tracking security systems such as Lojack. Therefore, car alarm sales are down.Did Rudy help clean up NYC, of course, undoubtedly. Will he be the next president, nope.
Gotham
Lets let this thing play out a bit.
I deal with many people outside NYC--in the South, and in other places. I've often heard respect and admiration expressed for Rudy, incl from business types who used to hate to have to come here on the job but who now like to come with the family for a long weekend.
These expressed sentiments were heard long, long before 9/11.
We'll see how much of a toll the media onslaught will take. I see Preacher Huckabee and Manager Romney basically weakening one another, while McCain does a bit better and Rudy does a lot better over time.
I do expect Rudy to be the nominee. It seems a no-brainer, once you think about how the contests are likely to play out over the next weeks.
Second most likely scenario: McCain as the nominee, with Rudy as the VP pick. Though I prefer the reverse.
Nobody outside NYC, knew the 9/10 Mayor. Any Mayor would have been America's Mayor after 9/11, well maybe Dinkins might have been playing tennis.
I don't see it. He accomplished some great things as Mayor, but that is where his talent lies. His judgment (Kerik, marriage, temper tantrums) isn't the best suited to be President.
John McCain has a serious temper too.
I really don't care that much about the marriage thing. There have been plenty of great leaders who have cheated or who have been divorced. This simply would not be an issue in places like France--which is to the credit of the French.
Jimmy Carter was utterly faithful to Roslyn, but was the worst president in generations-though Bush may have taken the crown away.
This brings to mind President Lincoln offering to send kegs of the same whiskey General Grant gave to all of his generals.
I don't want to elect a virtuous husband. I want to elect a president who can lead.
--This brings to mind President Lincoln offering to send kegs of the same whiskey that Grant drank to all of his generals.--
He is petty, vindictive, mean-spirited, paranoid, ultra-secretive, cruel, closed off to any differing viewpoints. In short, a nightmare. Oh and let's not forget the patronage jobs given to friends of questionable ethics. He is also the personification of resume enhancement--with every speech his accomplishments seem ridiculously grander and grander. There's nothing this guy won't take credit for. Whatever he did for NY in terms of crime reduction (and I have a lot of problems with the automatic acceptance of the idea that Rudy is solely responsible for this), it's not going to play in the deep south and the west, where squeegee men and graffiti artists might as well be mythical creatures from the Lord of the Rings. The only thing that matters to them is how he stands on the God, Guns, and Gays. And no matter how much he tries to fudge his record, he'll never be their candidate. He is, as another post put it, "toast."
Rudy was horrible. I'm glad he fell flat on his face.
"Giuliani Quits Race, Endorses John McCain"
Just popped by to gloat for a moment.
OK, I'm done.
You can't imagine how relieved I am that our potential nightmare (Rudy as Prez) is over!
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