Giuliani starts first steps to Presidential Candidacy
 

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WASHINGTON (Nov. 14) - Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, a moderate Republican best known for his stewardship of the city after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, has taken the first step in a 2008 presidential bid.

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Dang. I might actually have to eat my words and register to vote in 2008.

This does not surprise me.

the problem with him is that he has a dirty past, which will bite him in the ass if the smear campaigns roll out.

Gross.

He won't win. People, 7/11 aside, haven't forgotten what a shitty mayor he was.

I read the news and heard he's only "testing the waters" so far. He can do like a "mock" campaign but doesn't have to declare running for presidency until he's certain.

Did he frequent alot of gas stations?

Ahahahahaha, oh Macallan you gorgeous bastard!

Seriously, 7/11 was a very bad day for America...

yeah, he tried to censor art, which he's the scum of the earth as far as I'm concerned

I think all that aside, Giuliani probably will win New York.

In most of the country, all people will remember is him on 9/11.

I'm not sure he has the stature to carry off a presidential bid, though.

How can you say that? He cleaned up NY.. and he got rid of the squeegie guys! :)

Out side of 9/11, he 'helped' divide NYC.

And 7 WTC fell, or was helped, due to the fuel tanks for NYC's ESC "bunker".

No doubt as for the much younger generation, all they could remember of him was 9/11, and that itself could impress quite a bit of the younger voters. But of course as it gets closer, more dirt will be dig out, so I wouldn't be too worried.

I just don't like him because he's too liberal.

Side Notes: McCain is filing paper work tommorow, Tommy Thompson announced his filing as well (this surprised me), I wouldn't look for the other co frontrunner, Mitt Romney, to file until after the new year, but I could be wrong.

I don't think so. Most liberal NYC area voters I know would not vote for him - and they are the ones who usually determine the way the state goes despite all the red voters upstate. I do think it would matter who he was running against, though.

I read an editorial the other day about how Bloomberg no longer says he'd never run for higher office and the writer was hoping he'd run for President. I'm sure it won't happen and he'd never win, but I think he'd actully have more of a chance to win NY than Giuliani...though maybe that's just b/c I like him more. :)

Have there been any mayors of NYC that anyone liked?

Seems to me to be one of the more thankless jobs in the world.

I remember reading an article in New York magazine a couple of years back that said that hating the mayor is a New York institution.

Atilla the Hun for President.

Or Mayor.

A lot of people like Giuliani. When he took over, NYC was a mess. He cleaned up the streets, put people to work through his welfare-to-work initiative, clamped down on the mob, and did a heck of a job during 9-11. However, his views on illegal immigration could really hurt him.

A very beloved NYC mayor was Fiorello LaGuardia. He led the city through some of the worst days of the depression and the hardships of WWII. My grandmother used to tell me stories on how he would read the Sunday Comics on the radio during a nationwide newspaper strike so the kids wouldn't miss their favorite episodes.

And a brother in Phi Mu Alpha. (Sorry, couldn't resist.)

I just saw that Thompson announced - he'd been saying that he wouldn't run because he wanted to run against Feingold for Senate. I'm very surprised by it and not a huge fan - he did some good things as governor but he also did some pretty crappy things and left us with an asshat of a Lt. Gov. in McCallum.

If you've never read "Freakonomics" you should check out their 'Broken Window Theory' - ol' Rudy is the poster boy for it.

I agree with you here. He did do those things. But otherwise, he sucked monkey butt. I couldn't stand him, and I'm glad to see people agree with me in this thread.

What didn't you like about his policies? Can you be specific?

I haven't read it. Would you care to elaborate?

You should read it. It's an excellent book. A quick Google search will briefly explain more. There's also a recent Law Review article from University of Chicago that further discusses it.

I was on a homeland security trade mission this past summer to Israel. With us was a former staffer for Giuliani. I asked him if Giuliani might make a presidential run in 08. In his words most likely not because there are "too many skeletons". He did not elaborate further.

On another note, I like it went Rudy is the guest host on SNL. He's actually a pretty funny guy.

While I think that being the mayor of New York is as trying and difficult of a job as being governor of most (maybe all) states, the jump from a mayorality to the presidency is a pretty long one.

Recently, that road has led through state capitol buildings. I don't know if that's good or bad.

Exactly what was the amazing thing that Giuliani did during 9/11? In his position, any mayor (except Ray Nagin, but NOLA is another deck of dysfunctional cards altogether) would have done the same thing.

I would seriously vote for Steve Spurrier as president, though.

Nagin is a good point -- but to challenge you're comment.

Some officials are able to stand up to crisises (is that a word?) and some aren't.

Rudy, if nothing else, was an emotional rallying point for the city in its toughest hour -- and handled the situation about as well as could be expected.

I don't know that that makes him presidential material or not, but I don't think you can take away what he did on 9/11.

Basically, you repair cosmetic details (you really think the mafia was a real problem for the everyday life of New Yorkers? you don't realize the Times Square hookers and porno simply moved a block?) instead of addressing the problem, and most people think you've solved the issues.

Rudy won the psychological battle, even though he whiffed on any real issues.

These were far from cosmetic details. Mayor David Dinkins left NYC in shambles. Rudy Giuliani took a city in urban decay and restored it to its previous luster.

Some of the things Giuliani achieved while being mayor of NY:

-overall crime fell 44%

-murder plummeted 70%

-cleaned up graffiti and so-called "broken window" crime which resulted in increased tourism and more $'s for the city

-cut the welfare roles by half by implementing work-fare
(when he took office one out of 7 New Yorkers were on welfare-- he got more than 690-thousand people back to work)

- instituted $2.5 billion dollars in tax reductions

-turned a $2.3 billion dollar deficit (thanks to former Mayor Dinkins) into a multibillion dollar surplus

-stimulated economic growth (450,000 private sector jobs were created under his leadership)

-cracked down on organized crime-- (and how did it effect NY'ers you ask?) It returned hundreds of millions of dollars back to the city which had otherwise been drained from the city's economy

-his conduct during 9-11 speaks for itself. He was called
"the face of America" during that time. He proved to be a strong leader during a crisis unlike any other in this city. He pulled the city up by its bootstraps, united New Yorkers, kept the city running, took to the airwaves, put together a command center, and was able to get important economic vehicles such as the stock exchange open again in just a matter of days.


Did he make some mistakes? Sure. Was he perfect? No.
Can he get elected? I don't know. He's considered a "moderate" Republican. His views on abortion, gun control, gay rights and immigration could hurt him with right wing conservatives... but then again, it could help him with more moderate Republicans and Independents. His personal life also won't help him either with his much publicized messy divorce to Donna Hanover.

I'm not familiar with the governmental structure of NYC. Was the mayor directly responsible for each of these achievements listed? Were programs of his own initiative responsible for these? Or does NYC also have some sort of board or commissioners, etc.?

Also, where do these statistics come from? Sources are always good. Particularly since statistics can often be scewed and rarely tell the whole story.

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/giu0pro-1
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLI....01/index.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,34527,00.html
http://www.britannica.com/eb/article...lph-W-Giuliani
http://www.globalleadersevents.com/e...h-Giuliani.cfm
http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/peop...i/profile.html
http://www.gothamgazette.com/iotw/mob/
http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/rwg/html/bio.html

news release from Mayor's office with stats:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/om/html/2001a/pr042-01.html