giuliani OR the man who would be the 9-11 prom king
hello,
i've been thinking about the lack of giuliani's credentials as president of the united states of america. his main public service was as mayor of new york city at a time which happened to coincide with the worst domestic attacks the US has ever experienced, public service which ended a mere four months later. despite this, what part of his popularized legacy cannot be attributed to his handling of the aftermath of the september 11th attacks? true, the crime rates dropped in new york city during his term, but that followed a trend that almost every large US city was experiencing, and one that began with mayor dinkins before giuliani even took office.
i am not a giuliani expert, but it seems that the popularity he enjoyed immediately following the attacks mirrored the popularity that bush had at the same time. giuliani left office in 2002 before his legacy could actually reflect the work he did in new york outside of his role as mayor during 9-11. he also wasn't in a high enough position of power to exert that power towards unforgivable ends, as bush did with the iraq invasion.
by some accounts, bloomberg has been doing a better job for the city than giuliani did, with higher approval ratings. bloomberg's success may be the result of some initiatives that giuliani began but at least his approval ratings are based on his handling of typical mayoral responsibilities, and not a brief leadership role after an extreme event such as giuliani and 9-11.
besides, the group of people who one might expect to laud giuliani the loudest, the nyc firefighters, are actually pretty pissed with him right now. he declined to appear at the firefighter's union annual meeting recently as they have been vocal critics of how (in their eyes) he ceased conducting ground zero recovery efforts prematurely. and i've heard that giuliani as well as all but 2 republican candidates, have so far declined invitations to attend the youtube-sponsored debates, and the main reason giuliani has declined is bc his campaign managers are concerned about questions regarding the firefighters union opinion of him since he claims to have their support.
this is just another reason why the republicans will be trounced in november '08. compare giuliani with any of the democratic candidates, biden, gravel, edwards, clinton, and he can't hold a (sept. 11th "we stand as one") candle to their records.
who else do the republicans have? the cyborg mormon, mitt romney? good luck!
ps- if the twin towers fell in the middle of a forest and no one was around to hear them, would giuliani be a republican candidate for president?
pps- here's a story i just found which deals with similar issues
2 comments:
Rudolph seems about as hawkish and open to criticism as Bush. I often like to say why I most hate him, though: Approximately 15 minutes after Bush won in 2004 and before Kerry and officially conceded, Giuliani jumped on the air and announced that it was irresponsible and dangerous (it emboldened the terrorists) that Kerry and not yet conceded--we were "at war," after all, Giuliani said. Also, from Wikipedia:
"When Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal suggested that the attacks were an indication that the United States "should re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stand toward the Palestinian cause", Giuliani asserted,
There is no moral equivalent for this [terrorist] act. There is no justification for it... And one of the reasons I think this happened is because people were engaged in moral equivalency in not understanding the difference between liberal democracies like the United States, like Israel, and terrorist states and those who condone terrorism. So I think not only are those statements wrong, they're part of the problem.[73]
Giuliani subsequently rejected the prince's $10 million donation to disaster relief in the aftermath of the attack." --Kinda like how Bush squandered and/or declined all the foreign aid offered us post-Katrina.
since we're talking rudy, i heard this amazing audio clip a few years back and have subsequently found it via the web. link here:
http://www.oliverwillis.com/2007/02/audio_rudy_giul.html
(sorry no access to proper hyperlink procedure on safari.)
the audio is of rudster totally belittling some guy on his call in radio show. rudy is a total scumbag, and the way he treated this guy shows his lack of decency.
on a similar note i heard a poll recently rating none of the above as having the highest poll numbers for the republican nomination.
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