Criticism of him reflects his overall performance; the 9/11 phase was just an intermission. That he is using, and misusing, the intermission to characterize the entiee play speaks volumes about his credibility in itseff.

CO: What did Rudy or Bush do that any other Mayor or Prez at the time wd NOT have done?

I hope CO doesn’t mind if I answer this…
Compare Nagin after Katrina to Rudy after 9/11. Rudy wins, hands down.

There’s plenty of legitimate criticisms of Giuliani but saying that his actions after 9/11 were just all in a day’s work is silly, IMO. He did the figurehead leader/mourner/supporter-in-chief role very well, and not every mayor or chief executive is equally capable of that.

There’s still room for criticism in some of the decisions he made, but they were decisions on matters that had no precedent so I’m of the opinion that any choice he made on certain matters would have left him open to criticism (continue rescue operations indefinitely and the city is paralyzed, stop the search and rescue and you’re accused of ulterior motives; insist on limiting rescue workers orlimiting their shifts for their safety and you again paralyze the process…there just wasn’t any right answer, and he did reasonably well finding the best way ahead through that time.)

What’s irritating too is that most of what I’ve heard of Rudy running on 9/11 has been from the media, pundits and bloggers saying that this is what he’s doing. By bringing it up over and over again, is it really Giuliani who’s guilty of this or is it that those who oppose him are boxing him in that corner?

If the complaint is that his hawkish foreign policy is an offshoot of his 9/11 image, well, why not at least focus on what it is you dislike about his foreign policy stance instead of bringing up his role in the WTC attack recovery?

Rudy Giuliani distorts Ron Paul’s foreign policy position and refuses to concede that America’s interventionist foreign policy in the Middle East has anything to do with why Muslim terrorists hate us:

Enough said.

There’s an interesting piece in the latest Harper’s magazine about Rudy and his tenure in NYC.

Giuliani mispoke in Ohio and has since retracted.
Fortunately, for the Dems, none of theirs has.(/sarc)

And as far as the respirators, is it the Mayor’s job to determine the specific equipment needs of firefighters and policemen going out on a call?

Angela: What did Rudy or Bush do that any other Mayor or Prez at the time wd NOT have done? Nothing. They said the standard stuff, went to funerals.

And Rudy was loved by white elitists and hated by poor and minorities. Not that impressive a record, although, he looked good in comparison to Dinkins and Koch and Beame before him.

Criticism of Giuliani is not just the purview of the far left.

Apart from the 9/11days, his manner was gruff, disdaindul and often insulting. He is power hungry to an extent that should worry anyone. He would definitely seek to expand the powers of the executive even further than Bush and Cheney have done, if anyone can imagine that, and that should be of deep concerrn to anyone who values the concept of three equal branches of tovernment. His abrasiveness does not augur well for a country already wounded by a government running on animosity towards everyone outside of the inner circle and appointees.

Giuliani is definitely not a statesman. He is a bare knuckles fighter for the goals he sets for himself.
He is, from the perspective of this New yorker, a loose cannon.

Look, I know some people lost their minds on 9/11. Ala Dennis Miller, they have lived in rank cowardly terror ever since that date, and want a nasty tough cop like Rudy to protect them from harm. Surely after the last 7 years we can and MUST do better.

Giuliani gets a bravo for this, or more appropriately a bravette, because credit for adoption of the policy, which was first elucidated as “Broken Windows” by the great crimnologist James Q. Wilson in the early 1980s, must go to William Bratton, who in 1990 became head of the NYC Transit Police. This was three years before America’s Mayor took office.

I am a huge proponent of Broken Windows or Zero Tolerance or whatever you want to call it, but it should be noted that the precipitous drop in NYC crime during Giuliani’s tenure also was because of NYPD reforms and a robust economy. (Damn you, Bill Clinton!)

However, his campaign does seem to rely very much on his notoriety after the 9/11 attacks. This seems to me to be merely a timing issue. The republican nomination will rely very heavily on national security so that is the battle that this meme is designed to fight. However, in the general election, likely to be against one time lawyers and senators, expect to be constantly regaled with his accomplishments as the Mayor of NYC.

If Giuliani’s past record is so impressive, why is he not trumpeting that from the highest mountains and deepest valleys of the political landscape?

Giuliani has turned himself into a one-trick pony, at least in the non-New Yorker view, with his constant repetition of various 9/11 memes. I cannot recall hearing any news brief that has him sighting any of his other accomplishments in his political career, and I have been listening for them. So all Mr. Mullen is doing now is repeating back the same meme that we, as a whole, are getting from his campaign.

Also, please view the next definition down when using the word “moderate”. In this context, it uses the adverb and noun definitions, those who occupy the political center or opposed to radical and extreme views, rather than the verb definition of “to lessen the intensity of, restrain”.

(I apologize if I made anyone have a flashback to their elementary-school grammar class. Particularly if the flashback was bad.)

His actual campaign platform is simply frightening. He rejects the idea of diplomacy and wants to “stay on offense,” which seemingly means he wants to start more illegal and immoral wars.

He’s just another “tough” guy Republican that had better things to do during the Vietnam war.

To call Mr. Giuliani a one trick pony shows complete ignorance, willful or not, of his career as a NY prosecutor and as mayor; after all, the 9/11 attack occurred at the end of Mr. Giuliani’s tenure as mayor. It ignores the improvements that Mr. Giuliani brought to the city through his work as a prosecutor, (i.e., lessening the corruption in many industries), and as mayor, (overseeing the revitalization of the city in general).

Looking at the field of candidates, by the logic of Mr. Mullen, some would have to be considered no trick ponies. A moderate voice would have added some context to this post which would have made it much more convincing, without context, it is merely unsupported opinion and we all know the cliche regarding opinions.