Date: September 10, 2005 5:30:19 AM PDT
Subject: Giuliani will be next US Pres
Chicago Sun Times
Thomas Roeser
If he runs for president in '08, Rudy can't fail
September 10, 2005
BY THOMAS ROESER
Hurricane Katrina may have changed the dimension of the nation's politics
for 2008. With George W., we voted for him because he would take the fight
against terrorism to its origination point: the Middle East. I salute that
strategy and believe that Iraq will be democratized with great dividends for
our international security.
But next it'll be important to have a president who can slash through red
tape and make us secure at home. The Katrina thing wasn't Bush's fault, but
what was needed was a president who could pull the trigger domestically,
knock heads together with the state and local governments and deliver
resources quickly. That spells only one name for future president. In an
ideal world he may not have been my first choice, but it's Rudy Giuliani.
Giuliani played no role in taming Katrina, but as I saw New Orleans turn
into an open sewer, all I could think of was what Giuliani would do. Threats
to our country demand a Prince of the City: a prince fearless enough to
write his own rules to establish order. And a prince emblematic of
Machiavelli's book of the same name, one who can bluff winningly, who can
engender fear and respect. As one conservative Republican woman in Temecula,
Calif., told radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt: ''All that [meaning pro-life,
pro-abortion] doesn't matter if we're not safe." By which she meant
Giuliani, the indomitable ex-mayor of New York, the hero of 9/11. With
Giuliani, the signal would be transmitted to all: He's determined that we
will be safe at home.
The Twin Towers disaster and Katrina were different, but what Giuliani did
in New York was to direct the city while instructing the entire country as
to what was happening and how he was going to fix it. Giuliani seized the
day. He is running first in the 2008 Republican sweepstakes.
They say he's a sinner, and I believe that. His personal life has been, up
to his third marriage, awful. He slept on the couch at Gracie Mansion,
vomited by his solitary self after chemotherapy for prostate cancer, wife
No. 2 not caring enough to inquire about him. Now he's cured and is a wiser
but sadder man. I like my presidents humbled somewhat.
Fortunately, I am not alone in my high regard for Giuliani. The most recent
Pew poll, which maps the political landscape, has Giuliani topping all
contenders across a broad swath of public opinion. He rates highest among
enterprisers, those who want to promote business (90 percent); social
conservatives (75 percent); pro-government conservatives (69 percent); the
"upbeats" who view the future positively (69 percent); taking with him a
majority of the disaffected people who have felt depressed about the
country's future (53 percent); doing nicely with disadvantaged Democrats (37
percent), and falling just short of a majority with liberals (47 percent).
He has done this without the visible trappings of a campaign.
There's only one guy in modern times who started with such an advantage:
Dwight D. Eisenhower. When Eisenhower announced for president, few knew
anything about him other than he was a man of decisiveness. On June 4, 1944,
he looked at his watch and the weather reports and said, ''We'll go.'' Did
we ever.
And as for those who say that Giuliani is too liberal, I say: Wait for the
change as the campaign unfolds and he won't have to romance just New York
City. His critics forget the magical fluidity that is politics. Ike started
out as an FDR man, JFK an America Firster, LBJ a segregationist, Nixon a Red
China-basher.
Reagan was originally a pro-choicer who co-founded Americans for Democratic
Action. George H.W. Bush, who was called "rubber George" in the House,
wanted the feds to control population and was an enthusiastic pro-choicer.
And remember, George W. was a supporter of humble, stay-at-home foreign
policy.
One more thing: Let 'em pair Giuliani, whose words spout like bullets from a
machine gun, with a veep who talks slow, with the vowels dripping syrup on
hominy grits swimming with butter: Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi, who
brilliantly handled Hurricane Katrina. Manhattan and Mississippi. Yeah: I
like that.
Daily News
9/11 tours will tell it like it was
By DAVID SALTONSTALL
DAILY NEWS CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF
Mickey Kross, a city firefighter for 27 years, just wants people to know
what really happened on Sept. 11, 2001 - and how six brave men from his
firehouse died that day.
For Kimberly Grieger, who volunteered at Ground Zero one day and stayed for
eight months, it's about remembering the random acts of goodness that
followed the horrific attacks.
And for Lee Ielpi, whose firefighter son Jonathan died in the attacks, it's
about protecting our future by honoring and learning from our past.
The three will be among a bevy of volunteer tour guides at Ground Zero, a
place that has been oddly lacking in official tours since the attacks.
"If you were here and you had the knowledge, wouldn't you want to tell
people?" said Kross, 58, whose E. 29th St. firehouse lost all six members of
Ladder No. 7.
The tours will be organized out of the planned Tribute Center, to be located
on Liberty St. at the edge of Ground Zero. Weekend tours will begin in
October, with most to be led by survivors of family members of those who
died.
Mayor Bloomberg, Gov. Pataki and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani all turned out
yesterday to help announce the new tours, a fuller description of which can
"It's the only way to recapture the worst day in the history of our city -
and the best day in the history of our city," said Giuliani, referring to
the countless acts of valor that followed the attacks.
"We must rebuild," added Pataki. "But more important is remembering."
Originally published on September 10, 2005
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