Rudolph Giuliani (1944- ), also known as just Rudy, was the mayor of New York during 9/11. The leadership he showed at that terrible time made him world famous. He was mayor from 1994 to 2001. He ran for president in the 2008 election, but dropped out after losing in Florida on January 29th.
In December 2007 he was the top Republican in the Gallup poll. Only once in the past 30 years did the Republican who led in December not become the Republican who ran the following November. But Giuliani threw away his lead by not entering the early state races in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and South Carolina.
(On the Democratic side the December poll means nothing. Remember Gary Hart and Bill Bradley?)
Giuliani made his stand in Florida. It was too little too late: during January 2008 McCain, Huckabee and Romney had passed him by.
When he lost Florida he dropped out of the race and threw his support behind McCain.
Giuliani has the makings of a good if not a great president, but half his party does not like him. The Republicans have two main wings: business, which provides much of the money, and the Christian right, which provides much of the vote. Bush belonged to both wings, Giuliani only to one.
His three wives:
- Regina Peruggi, 1968-1982
- Donna Hanover, 1984-2002
- Judi Ann “Judith” Stish, 2003-
On 9/11 the two tallest buildings in New York were struck down by Al Qaeda and nearly 3000 died. Giuliani showed leadership and courage. Unlike the president at the time and unlike the mayor of New Orleans four years later when Katrina struck his city.
Giuliani is not one to give into circumstances. In his term as mayor he cut crime in half, making the city liveable once again. Most people had accepted crime as a fact of life in the city. Not Giuliani.
Giuliani backed the police all the way, even to the point of turning a blind eye to things like shooting an unarmed man 19 times (Amadou Diallo). The police started arresting people for even small things, like not crossing the street at the corner. That was his policy of zero tolerance. Giuliani wanted the law to be respected – or at least feared.
The crime rate dropped by half and the murder rate even further. Experts in the late 1980s said that crime in New York would drop in the 1990s as the Crack Epidemic burned itself out, but not by that much. It became the safest large city in the country.
Giuliani also balanced the city’s books. And he helped the poor to find work so that half of the million people who lived on government money were able to support themselves.
In the 1980s he was the US Attorney for southern Manhattan. He became famous in the city by putting underworld crime figures in prison as well as insider traders on Wall Street, like Michael Milken and Ivan Boesky.
Last updated: Wed Jan 30 13:00:09 UTC 2008
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