So Kerry Healey’s got a new ad running that features Massachusetts’ favorite Yankee fan (now there’s an oxymoron), Rudy Giuliani. Does anyone around here actually care what Rudy Giuliani thinks?
Anyway, I couldn’t help noticing that the ad seemed awfully reminiscent of something. The letterbox format, the talking head on a white background, the mention of Democrats and Republicans and “getting things done” … seems so familiar … can’t quite place it … oh wait —
Please share widely!
“She’ll deliver STRONG leadership for Change”
<
p>
Change from what? Her previous administration? What does she think that she can do that Mitt “Did ya hear the one about Massachusetts” Romney couldn’t or didn’t do? You gotta wonder why Dick Cheney, who stumped for her here in Boston didn’t do the ad or Bush?
on her own positions…
<
p>
Banning stem cell research*
Letting students graduate without passing MCAS
Restricting access to CORI
Quality universal health care
Getting seniors out of their homes
Romney’s position on choice
Retroactive tax hikes
CORI reform
Debating all the candidates
Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
On September 10th, 2001, Rudy Giuliani was one of the least popular politicians in America. The Republican party was turning on him, he wasn’t running for re-election and he was mired in a half-dozen different scandals, personal and otherwise.
<
p>
I like to think any one of a thousand politicians and elected officials would have made the same feel-good speeches and held the same forceful press conferences had their city been attacked, but somehow this man has been put on a pedestal. I can’t wait until he runs for office again and has to defend his record beyond throwing out the first pitch or introducing Saturday Night Live.
As a transplanted New Yorker, I couldn’t agree more. Giuliani was not a popular mayor, especially in his second and final term (there’s a two-term limit for mayor in NYC). He earned the hatred of many for his civil liberty violations in the name of “cleaning up NY.” Not to mention his infamous press briefing in which he “announced” he and his wife were separating. This is how she found out his decision too.
<
p>
But all that changed on 9/11 for one major reason. When the country was in shock, fearing where the next attack would occur, he was the only political leader you could find on TV — where the country had turned to watch the day’s events. Bush was in the air somewhere and Cheney was in an “undisclosed location.”
<
p>
So, during that moment of genuine crisis, when the country needed a leader to be “in charge,” there he was reassuring a nervous nation. It may sound hokey, but that’s how the day unfolded and that’s the wave he continues to ride today (although the further away we get from that day, the more his role fades from the memories of many).
<
p>
What the Giuliani-loving Republicans don’t realize, but which will be made clear by his opponent when he next runs for office, is that he used to be a Democrat and remains quite socially liberal (pro-choice, pro-gay rights, etc.). That’ll go over well in Kansas.
He was an upopular mayor by 9/10/01, but he was a very good mayor for NY, particularly in his first term. In part because of some common-sense policies, in part because of a forceful personality, and in large part because of economic forces beyond his control, the city experienced a Rennaisaance during his tenure. But, like Koch before him, his act was stale by that late point in his second term.
<
p>
He became the hero of 9/11 pursely becuase all of the other leaders were so paralyzed, and he seemed to ne doing something, even if that was only to be present and to talk a lot with the press. Though he became the 9/11 hero politician by default, he certainly did a marvelous job in the circumstances that were thrust upon him.
<
p>
That said, he is WAY to thin-skinned to survive a primary campaign, and is way to liberal to be nominated anyway. I suspect that he might have a position- AG?- in a McCain administration.
Good points, CMD, especially the comparison to Koch’s administration. Although wildly popular for a long time, by the end, the Koch Administration was full of corruption and his act had worn thin. I won’t even get into the Dinkins years.
<
p>
Giuliani was rumored to have been a strong candidate for AG pre-Gonzalez, but the word on him was that he liked being in charge and not reporting to anyone else. Don’t know if that’s true (although it sure sounds like him), but if it is, I can’t imagine he’d ever be satisfied as AG. And you are right, no way he makes it through a primary.
How far does Kerry Healey have to reach to get support? It looks like she has to reach all the way to New York City. Where is your Governor in all this Kerry? It seems he knows not to back a loser.