Article: Giuliani Would Give Us a Good Race

I was reading something on Rudy Giuliani the other day. This is a strange way to feel about any candidate but here it is: I like him for the reasons most Liberals don’t like him, and I don’t like him for the things that most Liberals like about him. Let me explain, there are reasons I feel this way..

First, I hate the tag “America’s Mayor”. That was a crap-tag fixed on him by some pundit, somewhere. Giuliani was not very popular before 9/11. His credibility with New Yorkers was waning because of his affair and his very public Catholic divorce. He had to sit out the Senatorial race because he probably couldn’t get elected dogcatcher at that time. He screwed over his party that was hoping to keep Hillary home on the farm for love. He didn’t smile much, he was defiantly not a happy man. The years that he actually turned NYC around, from a crime-ridded, mob run slum, into a first-rate, clean dynamic sq1eaky clean city seemed all but forgotten because of a matter that was nobody else’s business but his own.

Then 9/11 happened. For the next several months there was Giuliani, on stage, at the podium, his sleeves rolled up as he toiled with the First Responders, the man of action, the hope of a city. He played that for everything it was worth. I probably would have done the same thing, after all, he did actually have to bring the city back into reality. I just didn’t like his constant smiling and his face on every event that had anything to do with 9/11. Watching Rudy Giuliani for those months was like watching a three month telethon with Jerry Lewis. It almost seemed to me as if it was less about the tragedy of 9/11 than the glorification of Rudy Giuliani. I’m sure that was a mean cut I just ,made, but that’s the way I felt. It reminded me of a funeral I attended for a fellow Recruiter from Long Island who happened to flip his car over on the Southern State Parkway. We knew he had been under a lot of pressure and had been constantly harassed by our leadership then, and then the Major and the Master Sergeant came in and started glad-handing everyone at the funeral as if they were at a party. It just seemed so out of place.

He is anathema to the Conservatives and the Liberals alike. The Conservative Republicans look at his views and shudder. The Liberals kook at his ideas and don’t trust what they see. I have on many occasions listened to Giuliani, and he is not your average politician. He is somebody that thinks, and because of that one fact alone, to me he is worthy of respect. Giuliani doesn’t follow any one drumbeat, he is his own drummer, and he also knows how to get things done. You may hate his guts, but like the old adage; You can’t argue with success. Rudy Giuliani is one of the most successful men in politics today. I have no way to prove a feeling that I have about him, maybe just being a New Yorker says it all, but I believe he can not be bought. If he could have been bought, He would have been bought. He would have never cleaned up New York City the way that he did if he was taking anything.

Of course I consider myself a Liberal Progressive, so how can I like Rudy? It’s easy. When you hear him talk about the Welfare to work system, he talks about the individual, not numbers. He looks at problems in a way that makes them doable. He pares the problems down a step at a time so that he can start to bring the problem down to a manageable level. He asked a roomful of people at the Hoover Foundation, How do you help a friend who is out of work and homeless? You have to bring it down to a personal thing. You don’t throw money at the person until the money runs out, you feed him, get him clothed, meet his basic needs and if it’s just a one time problem like bad luck, you help find him a job. If he can’t work, you find out why and get him doing something productive. He often says that a “managed” economy driven government can be the best friend that people can have. That the State should not be the main employer, but that the economy should run the state., That is pure Republicanism. When you listen to Giuliani spin it however, you always hear the4 qualifier that he puts before any economy driven system. He ALWAYS talks about “managed”, “qualified” and “transparent” government controlled by business. He never assumes that the rich will take care of the less fortunate. Rudy, just as you or I, knows that to trust Corporate America to take care of the Corporate/Consumer, will never happen unless it’s a win-win situation. I truly understood how he solves problems.

The fact that he does solve problems helps me to get over the fact that in most things I really never liked him much. Results are however, something that can’t be argued with. The proof is in the pudding goes the old adage. If you can’t argue with success, you can’t argue with Giuliani. I have no idea what Obama or Clinton can do. They can’t even seem to make themselves appear creditable. They have no record, so the only thing we have to go on is what they do today. That isn’t much. Edwards hasn’t said anything new, and Al Gore is just starting to realize that he has his own personality. I don’t really trust any of them, but avoiding a question with a statement that says nothing is something I no longer have any tolerance for. I suspect many Americans feel the same way as I do. Rudy Giuliani will give you an answer, whether you like it or not. So far, I’d rather have that than another vacant talking head.

I like the idea of Giuliani winning the Republican nomination. That would do more to hurt the NeoCons than anything else. It would also put the Democratic Party on notice that there is a viable Republican out there and just because you have more money than anyone else, doesn’t give you a blank check for the White House. Just once I would like to go to a voting booth and have a hard time deciding who to vote for. Just once before I die I would like to have a different choice than just the lesser of two evils. Just once more I would like to see America win on election day and not the corporate crusaders.