Rudy Takes First Step Towards Presidency
Written by Sam on November 13th, 2006Rudy Giuliani filed papers today to form an exploratory committee to run for president in 2008. Obviously this comes as no surprise since the media has been talking about it for at least a year now. This just makes it official.
I really like Rudy Giuliani, personally, but I have doubts about his prospects of winning the Republican primary. If he just weren’t so liberal on issues. He supports gay marriage, abortion, and gun control. These stances will absolutely kill him in the Sun Belt primaries. I don’t care about his gay marriage support because I think that is something each state should settle on its own, but no way can I deal with anyone who wants to put their hands on our guns.
This really sucks because I think Rudy Giuliani would make an excellent President and be hawkish on the War on Terror, which is exactly what we need. Who knows. He is not a stupid man by any means and he has to be aware of his taboo among conservatives with these positions. It will be interesting to see how this pans out.
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Even with all his problems, I’d much rather have Guiliani than McCain. More on this later.
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How many divorces has he had? Do we want a role model as commander in chief, or do we want a guest for Jerry Springer?
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He is a big government Republican and his stance on the war not withstanding I am not sure he would make much of comander-in-chief either due to his law enforcement background.
As for him having a divorce, so what? That should disqualify him fom public office? What nonesense! He has cheated on his wife though and while that shouldn’t disqualify him from office it does raise questions of just how far you can trust the guy.
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Weren’t we the ones who were saying “character counts” during Clinton? I know I was!
Maybe for Secretary of Homeland Security (if we can’t abolish that department), but President??? Please, God, NO! He presided as Mayor when 9/11 hit. Other than that, he’s no different from any other liberal, big city mayor.
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I agree, and I don’t think Rudy will get much traction. It’s hard for social-liberals to get grassroots traction in the Republican Party. The country-clubbers write big checks, but it’s tough to get them to do, say, precint organization in Manchester, NH.
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Wow. Rudy may be the only solidly fiscal conservative candidate running for President. Look seriously at how he handled his executive position as Mayor of New York. The adoption rate increased over 60%, the abortion rate dropped over 30%, he cut 6 BILLION in spending, and he’s anti-state money going towards smut. Rudy’s a solid candidate for conservatives and I’m waiting to see the conservative base finally realize it.
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Rudy is not a fiscal conservative. He is a “big government is the answer” conservative. I don’t care if he fought “smut” or not. Who honestly cares about that stuff? The abortion rate dropping in NYC and the adoption rate going up are not reasons to elect him president of the whole country.
Cutting 6 billion in spending is great, but his history suggests that he is not in favor of a real reduction is the size and scope of the federal government.
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Its alot more then just His ‘Gay Marriage, Abortion, Gun Control’ stances that make him a leftwing liberal.
After reading the below article from FreeRepublic.com I would consider voting for McCain if he were the only other candidate that could stop Guiliani from winning.
Guilaini Vs Hillary = Liberal Win or Win situation.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1692590/posts
As Tom Bevan of RealClearPolitics has pointed out, Rudy is an adherent of the same approach to illegal immigration that John McCain, Ted Kennedy, George Bush, and Harry Reid have championed:
“While McCain has taken heat for his support of comprehensive immigration reform, Rudy is every bit as pro-immigration as McCain - if not more so. On the O’Reilly Factor last week Giuliani argued for a “practical approach” to immigration and cited his efforts as Mayor of New York City to “regularize” illegal immigrants by providing them with access to city services like public education to “make their lives reasonable.” Giuliani did say that “a tremendous amount of money should be put into the physical security” needed to stop the flow of illegal immigrants coming across the border, but his overall position on immigration is essentially indistinguishable from McCain’s.”
That’s bad enough. But, as Michelle Malkin has revealed, under Giuliani, New York was an illegal alien sanctuary and “America’s Mayor” actually sued the federal government in an effort to keep New York City employees from having to cooperate with the INS:
“When Congress enacted immigration reform laws that forbade local governments from barring employees from cooperating with the INS, Mayor Rudy Giuliani filed suit against the feds in 1997. He was rebuffed by two lower courts, which ruled that the sanctuary order amounted to special treatment for illegal aliens and were nothing more than an unlawful effort to flaunt federal enforcement efforts against illegal aliens. In January 2000, the Supreme Court rejected his appeal, but Giuliani vowed to ignore the law.”
If you agree with the way that Nancy Pelosi and Company deal with illegal immigration, then you’ll find the way that Rudy Giuliani tackles the issue to be right down your alley.
A More Charismatic Version of Arlen Specter
Rudy Giuliani may have many fine qualities, but he is not a conservative, nor has he always been a loyal Republican.
For example, back in the mid-nineties, when he was actually running New York City, Rudy could have fairly been said to have governed as a moderate at best and to the left-of-center at worst:
* “The National Journal’s rating system put him at 56 percent conservative and 44 percent liberal on economic issues in 1996 and assessed him as liberal by 59 to 40 percent in looking at his social issues votes.”
The New York Observer also had a very interesting selection of quotes from and about Rudy over the years that may give his conservative supporters more than a little pause. Here are a few of those quotations:
* Some ask, How can the Liberal Party support a candidate who disagrees with the Liberal Party position on so many gut issues? But when the Liberal Party Policy Committee reviewed a list of key social issues of deep concern to progressive New Yorkers, we found that Rudy Giuliani agreed with the Liberal Party’s stance on a majority of such issues. He agreed with the Liberal Party’s views on affirmative action, gay rights, gun control, school prayer and tuition tax credits. As Mayor, Rudy Giuliani would uphold the Constitutional and legal rights to abortion. — N.Y.S. Liberal Party Endorsement Statement of R. Giuliani for Mayor of New York City April 8, 1989
* Mr. Rockefeller represented “a tradition in the Republican Party I’ve worked hard to re-kindle - the Rockefeller, Javits, Lefkowitz tradition.” — Rudy Giuliani, New York Times, July 9, 1992
* What kind of Republican? Is [Giuliani], for instance, a Reagan Republican? [Giuliani] pauses before answering: “I’m a Republican.” — Village Voice, January 24, 1989
* “Shortly before his last-minute endorsement of Bob Dole in the 1996 presidential election, [Giuliani] told the Post’s Jack Newfield that “most of Clinton’s policies are very similar to most of mine.” The Daily News quoted [Giuliani] as saying that March: “Whether you talk about President Clinton, Senator Dole…. The country would be in very good hands in the hands of any of that group.”
* Revealing at one point that he was “open” to the idea of endorsing Clinton, he explained: “When I ran for mayor both times, ‘89 and ‘93, I promised people that I would be, if not bipartisan, at least open to the possibility of supporting Democrats.” — Rudy - An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani, Wayne Barrett, Page 459
* “From my point of view as the mayor of New York City, the question that I have to ask is, ‘Who has the best chance in the next four years of successfully fighting for our interest? Who understands them, and who will make the best case for it?’ Our future, our destiny is not a matter of chance. It’s a matter of choice. My choice is Mario Cuomo.” — Rudy Giuliani: Emperor of the City, Andrew Kirtzman, Page 133
* “[Quite] frankly, you have to understand the fact that Rudy Giuliani was a McGovern Democrat, he was endorsed by the Liberal Party when he ran for Mayor. In his heart, he’s a Democrat. He’s paraded all over this country with Bill Clinton and, in fact, he’s very comfortable with Mario Cuomo. But what Rudy Giuliani wants is to be bailed out in the city, in the mess he’s in, and everybody understands very clearly in politics that they struck a deal, that Mario’s going to continue to be the big spender, save Rudy the options of raising taxes by pouring money statewide into the City of New York and bailing it out. Quite frankly, I predict that he will join the Democratic Party.” — Interview with Michael Long, Chairman N.Y.S., Conservative Party, CNN Crossfire, October 25, 1994
Does this really sound like the sort of candidate we want as a standard bearer for the Republican Party?
I consider Rudy Guiliani’s conservative credentials Pwned !
McCain is a hell of alot better. McCain actually has voted against PORK spending more then John Kyl, George Allen, and Santorum and he is Pro-Life but so many people prefer Guiliani over McCain why ?
Well they figure if guiliani is ‘Socialy Liberal’ he probally is fiscally conservatives.
Bullcrap, Guiliani is fiscally liberal and the Liberal Party of NY wouldnt have endorsed him if he was a fiscal conservative.
Rudy Guiliani is basicly a well spoken Lincoln Chafee-ite who supports the war in Iraq. Specter is better then Guiliani as he at least voted for Alito and Roberts.
I’d rather not vote at all instead of voting for ‘Rudi Di Rino Guiliani’.
Anyways the MSM will support him over McCain because McCain actually has more conservative views then Guilani’s socialism.