Does Giuliani's performance during 9/11 overshadow his previous accomplishments?

Question

Listening to NPR earlier, they were asking a democrat supporter about Republican candidates. That's how they do things. Anyway, this woman said that Giuliani hasn't done anything aside from being a standout during 9/11. Well, I think that whole position is completely biased but whatever thats typical.

Answer 1

Yes, it's interesting that you bring this up. NYC was a cesspool in the 80's. Twice in one night I had people try to sell me drugs (showed them to me) right in front of cops, and the cops just shrugged their shoulders (Times Square and around Columbia U.). My company had a policy of not permitting us to go into the subways when traveling on business (they paid for taxis). At that time fare jumpers were draining the subways of revenue. Rudy cleaned is up a lot, but all people know about him is 9/11. Read "The Tipping Point" if you want to find out the whole story of what Rudy did (he hired good people, told them the results he expected, let them do their jobs as they thought appropriate and gave them credit for their accomplishments...the mark of a leader).

Answer 2

Of course, that is how he became nationally known, he was the hero of 9/11, "America's Mayor", TIME's Person of the Year in 2001. But it can only help him, he can use that record in addition to his other accomplishments, but 9/11 is what he's mostly known for. If not for 9/11. He would not be running for President. The Republican Presidential candidate from New York, if anyone, would be George Pataki, not Rudy Giuliani.

Answer 3

He didn't even do anything on 9/11 except answer a bunch of questions and be visible for the media. Rudy Giuliani also lied on tv about having prior knowledge that the towers would collapse. The fire fighters and victims families hate him and have launched attacks to swiftboat him to the elections.

To even consider him a top tier candidate is almost laughable.

Answer 4

Giuliani is often given credit for the drop in crime in NYC, but this was part of a nationwide trend that was in turn a result of prison-building by the states. His really outstanding accomplishment was breaking up the organized crime families when he was federal prosecutor. He wrote the legislation authorizing the crackdown and showed other prosecutors how to used it. Robert Kennedy and John Dewey both used crackdown on organized crime to launch bids for the White House -- and their crackdowns were nowhere near as successful as Giuliani's.

Answer 5

While he does tend to repeat the same lines over and over again, Rudy did make a difference in NYC. Hillary, the carpet bagger, knows nothing about the state she represents and she DOESN'T CARE! She only became Senator as a launching block for president.

If it is a choice between Rudy and Hillary, that's easy! Go back to NY Hillary Rotten Clinton!

Answer 6

I think it's funny that the same critics of Giuliani (who has a LONG list of real, solid accomplishments, going back to his early days as one of the first prosecutors to really take on the NY Mafia head-on) will turn around and throw their support behind Hillary Clinton, who has scant list of actual and real accomplishments that she was personally and solely responsible for.

She has never run a business. She was never a mayor. She was never a governor. She was never in a position where she had to make tough decisions and be the single person responsible for the outcomes of those decisions. Not even as a troop leader of girl scouts! And THIS is the person they want to lead the greatest nation in the world?

It's scary. What's even more frightening is that the media is afraid to challenge her on it.

Guiliani has shown one critical thing that's needed for the White House. At a time when all hell was breaking loose around him, he charged into it and kept his cool. He never blamed anyone else. He never second-guessed anyone. He buckled down at a time when everyone around him was panicking, calmed them down, and reminded them by example that they needed to work together to deal with the crisis in an orderly and appropriate manner.

And that's exactly what he did the rest of his career, even when the NY Mafia was threatening his life. And his method for cleaning up crime in NYC was brilliant, by eliminating the signs of crime (painting over graffiti, taking down porn signs in Times Square, going after the dirty-water squeegie guys at red lights, boarding up buildings with broken glass), he took away the hopelessness and malaise that people felt. So cops starting giving a d**n again, and people felt proud to fight against crime.

(It's no different than cops doing nothing but going after speeders and drunks, but ignoring all the basic courtesy laws, that have resulting in aggressive driving being the norm on our roadways. They forgot the little things, so no one cares any more. You get away with as much as you can.)

Hillary has NEVER been tested. She uses power like a dictator. Her single greatest accomplishment is being in charge of destroying any women who tried to expose her husband's infidelities (the chief gestapo in charge of the suppression of "bimbo eruptions"). THAT'S an accomplishment? THAT'S the kind of president we want? Someone who knows how to destroy her political enemies?

It's disgusting really. We're going to regret electing a queen who is ill prepared for the responsibilities of a true leader.

Answer 7

It's possible, but as a New Yorker, I can tell you he didn't too much for us...

And apparentlly not so much on 9/11 either

Giuliani faces questions about Sept. 11
Post-terrorist attack hero status challenged by some firefighters' families

NEW YORK - Rudy Giuliani's White House aspirations are inescapably tied to Sept. 11, 2001 - for better and for worse.

While the former mayor of the nation's largest city was widely lionized for his post-9/11 leadership - "Churchillian" was one adjective, "America's mayor" was Oprah Winfrey's assessment - city firefighters and their families are renewing their attacks on him for his performance before and after the terrorist attack.

"If Rudolph Giuliani was running on anything but 9/11, I would not speak out," said Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was among the 343 FDNY members killed in the terrorist attack. "If he ran on cleaning up Times Square, getting rid of squeegee men, lowering crime - that's indisputable.

"But when he runs on 9/11, I want the American people to know he was part of the problem."

Such comments contradict Giuliani's post-Sept. 11 profile as a hero and symbol of the city's resilience - the steadfast leader who calmed the nerves of a rattled nation. But as the presidential campaign intensifies, criticisms of his 2001 performance are resurfacing.

'He disrespected us in the most horrific way'
Giuliani, the leader in polls of Republican voters for his party's nomination, has been faulted on two major issues:

- His administration's failure to provide the World Trade Center's first responders with adequate radios, a long-standing complaint from relatives of the firefighters killed when the twin towers collapsed. The Sept. 11 Commission noted the firefighters at the World Trade Center were using the same ineffective radios employed by the first responders to the 1993 terrorist attack on the trade center.

Regenhard, at a 2004 commission hearing in Manhattan, screamed at Giuliani, "My son was murdered because of your incompetence!" The hearing was a perfect example of the 9/11 duality: Commission members universally praised Giuliani at the same event.

- A November 2001 decision to step up removal of the massive rubble pile at ground zero. The firefighters were angered when the then-mayor reduced their numbers among the group searching for remains of their lost "brothers," focusing instead on what they derided as a "scoop and dump" approach. Giuliani agreed to increase the number of firefighters at ground zero just days after ordering the cutback.

More than 5 1/2 years later, body parts are still turning up in the trade center site.

"We want America to know what this guy meant to New York City firefighters," said Peter Gorman, head of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association. "In our experiences with this man, he disrespected us in the most horrific way."

The two-term mayor, in his appearance before the Sept. 11 Commission, said the blame for the death and destruction of Sept. 11 belonged solely with the terrorists. "There was not a problem of coordination on Sept. 11," he testified.

Giuliani was also criticized for locating the city's emergency center in 7 World Trade Center, a building that contained thousands of gallons of diesel fuel when it collapsed after the terrorist attack.

The politics of 9/11
The lingering ill will between Giuliani and firefighters was resurrected when the International Association of Fire Fighters initially decided not to invite the former mayor to its March 14 candidates forum in Washington. Other prominent presidential hopefuls, including Republican John McCain and Democrats Barack Obama, Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards, addressed the nation's largest firefighters union.

According to the Giuliani camp, the contretemps with the union dates to tough contract negotiations in his second term as mayor. His critics deny any political motivation.

The IAFF drafted a membership letter - it was never sent - that excoriated Giuliani and promised to tell "the real story" about his role in handling the terrorist attack. Politics

The then-mayor's decision to change policy on the ground zero recovery effort was "an offensive and personal attack" on firefighters, the letter said, going on to say that Giuliani's "disrespect ... has not been forgotten or forgiven."

Giuliani countered the attacks by releasing an open letter of support from retired firefighter Lee Ielpi, whose firefighter son was among the 2,749 victims on Sept. 11. "Firefighters have no greater friend and supporter than Rudy Giuliani," Ielpi said.

A contingent of nearly 100 South Carolina firefighters also expressed their support for Giuliani and his White House hopes.

Hank Sheinkopf, a veteran political consultant, predicted the 9/11 criticisms could resonate beyond New York during the presidential campaign.

"These are very emotional people who will touch a responsive chord with a lot of the electorate," he said. "The things that the 9/11 families say will wind up in television commercials used against Rudy Giuliani."

The issues also have forced Giuliani to try to strike a balance to avoid the perception that he's exploiting the attacks for his own personal gain. President Bush faced the same challenge in 2004 when he invoked the attacks to portray himself as a strong and steady leader in the face of terrorism. Some victims' relatives criticized Bush for using the ruins of the World Trade Center in his campaign commercials, while others defended him."