Is Rudy Running in '08?
Howard Fineman of Newsweek takes a look at whether Rudy Giuliani will run for President in 2008. Just the thought makes me cringe.
I hope he decides against it. He has nothing to offer except more of the same and worse than we've endured the last four years.
I'm not taking a Rudy candidacy seriously at this point. For one thing, he's touted as a social liberal (have they never looked at his civil liberties record as Mayor of New York?) because he has supported choice and gays in the past -- and that will make him unacceptable to hard core rightists.
More importantly, personal politics and ethics still count in the heartland and he'll never get past his Donna Hanover divorce issues and her allegations of infidelity and humiliation. His attempt to take credit for the drop in crime in New York will be revealed to be not his doing, but Bill Bratton's. Their long standing feud will play out. Rudy's support of Bernie Kerik for HSA chief will come back to haunt him and reflect poorly on his judgment when it comes to making cabinet appointments. Even many of the 9/11 victims don't support him.
In short, Rudy has too many skeletons. Unlike Hillary's, they are his own, not those of his spouse. I'm not counting him out yet, I'm just not ready to go into high gear opposing him just yet.
More Rudy reading: this New York Magazine article from November, 2004 and the book America's Mayor--a free excerpt by Michael Tomasky about Rudy's standing on September 10, 2001 is well-worth re-reading. I also like The Hunchback of City Hall written when Rudy had been Mayor for Six Years. And my earlier post, Giuliani: Could You Just Gag?
Update: A compilation of Rudy quotes is here. A few choice ones:
"Freedom," Giuliani argued, "is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do and how you do it." Taking Liberties / Courts, critics fault Rudy on free speech, public access. - New York Newsday 4/20/98.
"I don't regard associations of my people that support me as fascists as a light matter ....But it's ultimately the results that matter." - NY TIMES 6/24/98.
"...the current mayor thinks he's a dictator and does not have sufficient respect, not only for other branches of government, but also for the citizenry and its opportunities to speak out and be heard" -Eliot Spitzer N.Y. Post 10/15/98.
"An exhibition of paintings is not as communicative as speech, literature or live entertainment, and the artists' constitutional interest is thus minimal." - Giuliani appeal brief against street artists having First Amendment protection, Giuliani v Lederman et al and Giuliani v Bery et al, filed with the U.S. Supreme Court 2/24/97.
"Even though there is generally no expectation of privacy in a public space, most people expect freedom from government monitoring when they eat lunch on a park bench or stroll down a street. The growing use of police video monitors in New York City may threaten the free and anonymous nature of public space." - 1/3/98 NY Times Editorial: Police Cameras in the Park.
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