Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

Giuliani Ain’t No Hamlet

But, according to this journalist, that’s not altogether a good thing. His hyper-manliness gives him exaggerated, unrealistic confidence in the rightness of his judgments; the record shows that his administration would be less about the preservation of limited government and more about the reckless abuse of executive authority. (Of course, I far from completely agree with this, but now that Rudy is so clearly ahead it’s time to consider his weaknesses.)

Discussions - 6 Comments

Given that Congress will probably be Democratic regardless of who is elected president, I’d be rather glad if Rudy used executive authority aggressively. All this constitutional whining is unimpressive given that our lives are at stake with these Islamofascists. Wake up, professors.

Come on. The campaign is just getting started...it’s way too early to start ripping candidates apart, Peter.

Peter, no man rallies to an uncertain trumpet.

Giuliani took a city that the punditocracy concluded COULDN’T BE GOVERNED. That it had to be broken up, that it was beyond the abilities of any man to effectively oversee.

He took a city that was slowly being swamped under a wave of pornography, prostitution and strip joints, and turned it around.

Why SHOULD he PRETEND to be humble about his accomplishments?

Wasn’t it his idea to bring the Commissions case, against the Mafia. He brought charges against the Godfathers SIMULTANEOUSLY, encompassing them in a single case. AGAIN, many prosecutors thought that approach courted failure. What’s more, many said that his approach courted HIGH-PROFILE FAILURE. And that if the Godfathers beat the charges, it would only add to their prestige within the world of criminality. But Giuliani won, and he won a first case of it’s kind in the history of Anglo-American jurisprudence.

It was Giuliani that paved the way for the reduction of the Mafia.

Sure he’s confident. He should be.

It would be weird if he weren’t!

"Rudy Giuliani saved a city with a larger population than Arizona, Massachusetts, or Virginia, the states of John McCain, Mitt Romney, and George Allen. He helped city and country take a harder blow than Pearl Harbor. These are two serious public achievements, which are two more than anyone else in the 2008 race, Republican or Democrat, can show."
-Richard Brookhiser, NATIONAL REVIEW, 12/18/2006

After the inanities of the John Lindsay Administration in NYC, Ed Koch was the one who actually began the job of bringing the city back. Unfortunately, he was succeeded by the egregious David Dinkins, who returned to Lindsay policies with predictable results. That’s when Giuliani stepped in and got things going in the right direction, again. Koch deserves more credit than he receives. This doesn’t diminish Giuliani. Koch got a lot of the administrative side of the problem right, but he didn’t shift the political forces decisively. Giuliani did, and his response to the terrorist attacks made his law-and-order reforms part of the character of New Yorkers in a way they had not been for decades.

I like Ed Koch...a sensible Democrat, for the most part. No harm in giving credit where it’s due.

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