Giuliani: The Real New Yorker

In a GOP presidential field in which cultural and religious conservatives may find something to object to in every candidate who could really get nominated (and, more important, elected), Giuliani may be the most conservative candidate on a wide range of issues. Far from being a liberal, he ran New York with a conservative’s priorities: government exists above all to keep people safe in their homes and in the streets, he said, not to redistribute income, run a welfare state, or perform social engineering. The private economy, not government, creates opportunity, he argued; government should just deliver basic services well and then get out of the private sector’s way. He denied that cities and their citizens were victims of vast forces outside their control, and he urged New Yorkers to take personal responsibility for their lives....Yes, Rudy Giuliani Is A Conservative, Steven Malanga, City Journal

This is a message that has been slow to get into MSM, but then MSM knows more than they tell. They know that of the two New Yorkers in the 2008 White House race, people who care about surviving into the future as Americans look to the former Mayor of New York, not to the former First Lady of Little Rock. Rudy may wear a dress on occasion, but he knows that dressing for the occasion involves more than putting on an empty suit. Rudy was, to be blunt, a pain in the ass for eight years in New York; before his extraordinary leadership from 9/11 to the end of his Mayoralty and beyond, many people intensely disliked him. The writer called him Benito Giuliani (with respect, of course). However, during those eight years, New York City was dramatically transformed from an overbuilt Dodge City to a dynamic center of freedom and opportunity. Giuliani, who has a gift for being in more than one place at one time, was everywhere involved in this change. His record is one of accomplishment, not a carpetbag full of tricks.

Luther