If the Republicans want to forward a face that explains their economic philosophy from someone who took New York city from the brink of Bankruptcy they should cart out Rudy Guiliani on every talking head show and make him the RUC Chairperson- because he articulates the values of that party in mostly a thoughtful and humorous but poignant way in a manner that doesn't alienate nearly as bad as I expected and turns all the culture wars into a fight for free enterprise-which has a bit of propagandistic appeal if you are looking for a scapegoat boogeyman to wail against the miseries. Somehow listening to him one forgets the debate over whether 9-11 was rigged by his party that killed a few thousand of its own in his city, and poisoned the air into a carcinogenic swamp. What 9-11? Who me sitting in the trade towers at ground zero?
Plus he is a Yankees fan and I like his parochial New Yorkisms. He did revitalize the private sector in New York. He fought for public schools but he also is a school choice zealot.
That said, he was still basically wrong on some major points, left no doubt that the Republicans will tooth and nail fight Obama on health care for the sport of it regardless of what it says denying americans who overwhelmingly of all parties want health care reform of some kind unless they work for the pharmaceutical companies or HMOs or directly profit in some other way (even my brother in law the famous Yalie cardiologist thinks the system needs radical reforming). Its too damned expensive. We are all going bankrupt.
Guiliani here accidentally modeled some of the heartless aspects of Laissez Faire that leave everyone to their own devices without addressing for example the insane costs of health care that even fair minded republicans find unacceptable- even at one point in his address to the American Enterprise Institute slightly mocking the crowd of people he fired from NY City run/owned hospitals that he indicated were the right people to fire because they never found work after that and spent their days tracking and following him around wherever he went making speeches. Joblessness isn't all that funny for the folks without a paycheck and all their families. Ah- that Empathy factor.
He noted that Belview in New York would have to treat you if you showed up still -and neglected to mention the bill you might get later that would throw you into bankruptcy. Belview- isn't that the hospital that featured all over Youtube last year where a woman waited so long in the ER waiting room in a bathrobe she flat out keeled over, dropped to the floor, writhed there unnoticed for a good 20 minutes and died?
Is this the Mayor who fought Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in their homeless ministry (see ink below) because the homeless slept on the streets of New York surrounding the church -all the way to the Supreme Court. He said if he had a homeless brother he wouldn't want him sleeping on the street, or demanding a right to sleep on the street, he would get him a place off the street and not allow him to sleep on the street. This is actually a rather shockingly ignorant statement coming from a Mayor who should be at least knowledgeable about the facts on homelessness and that the people who are on the street have often burned all bridges with family (family get tired of drug addict relatives stealing from them) and they often have either been kicked out of shelters for behavior problems or know the shelters to be madhouses of threatened assaults and craziness that makes the street actually a more peaceful rest. Aahh-that Empathy Factor again.
Guiliani did score a few fair points- the New York city skyline was not planned- and its beautiful in its expression of free enterprise and the entrepreneurial spirit. There was no city planning Czar of Skylines.
I agree. Wonderful.
He said that too much government and too many czars really doesn't address the efficiencies needed to resolve a lot of issues. I agree.
He got a laugh when noting "remember what happened to the last real
Czar?" A little menacing- call homeland security.
He blamed the economic melt down not on greed gone awry (where guys actually named Madoff Made Off with livlihoods and retirements and entire foundations trusts) unchecked by republican government watch dogs licking themselves instead, but by intrusive governmental intervention in the first place- as if he had a senior moment fog of memory and forgot the last 8 years his party ruled the government, staffed the SEC, hired the SEC commissioners and had majorities in Congress effecting any banking regulations. Whose fault was that? Does anyone think if it was all bad government's fault that this 7 month old Administration did it all? The Democrats have not been in power since the 1990s to the extent that they could possibly be blamed for not establishing capitalization reserves or ratios appropriately.
So all in all, Guiliani gets a 100 % on the basically very likeable and basically great to have a beer with quotient-better yet go to a Yankees game with. But he needs a much better coach on some basic empathy factors- so as to diminish the Grandpa Munster affect a bad light can turn his profile into.
If he is running for anything next- get a better set of advisors.
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