CPAC – Giuliani Time

CPAC 2007 Logo Rudy Giuliani’s speech at CPAC starts at noon. Unfortunately, they’re turning people away at the door because there are more people who want to see the speech than, to quote Waylon Jennings, than the law will allow. The fire code, in this case.

I can’t decide whether this is a brilliant stroke on Giuliani’s part, demonstrating that he’s wildly popular, or sabotage on the part of the organizers to irritate those who couldn’t get in.

UPDATE: The speech, which I was able to watch via closed circuit television, was quite impressive. George Will provided an excellent introduction, making the bold statement that Giuliani’s tenure as mayor represented the “eight years of most conservative governance in the 20th century.” He pointed to Giuliani’s record of tax cutting, crime fighting, and getting people off welfare and into jobs.

Giuliani himself emphasized his conservative credentials, talking about the things he learned from Ronald Reagan, but acknowledged that he had differences with many in the audience. He quoted Reagan, though, in pointing out that “Someone who agrees with me eighty percent of the time is not my twenty percent enemy.” It’s a lesson that he’ll have to teach over and over again.

He derided the Democrats in Congress for their fondness for non-binding resolutions, saying the job of elected leaders is to make tough decisions, not to be commentators.

He emphasized his conservative accomplishments as NYC mayor, including enacting the first tax cuts in the city’s history, changing Welfare Centers to Job Placement Centers, and cracking down on crime.

Interwoven throughout the speech, though, was what he said was Reagan’s foremost lesson, that of optimistic leadership. Giuliani is not quite a Reagan as a communicator, but he got the job done, I think.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Triumph says:

    He emphasized his conservative accomplishments as NYC mayor, including enacting the first tax cuts in the city’s history, changing Welfare Centers to Job Placement Centers, and cracking down on crime.

    The tax cuts claim is a bald-faced lie. Ed Koch cut a variety of taxes–including property taxes–in the mid-1980s.

    The Welfare to Job center thing was mandated by CLinton’s welfare reform act.

    I’m not sure what the experience of “cracking down on crime” offers for the presidency since policing is largely the responsibility of local government.

    Did he bring up the fact that it was his brilliant idea to put the city’s counter-terrorism center in the World Trade Center even though the building had been targeted in the past?

  2. Mark says:

    CLinton’s welfare reform act

    You mean the bill he vetoed twice before realizing he had to sign it to help him with re-election?

  3. legion says:

    I figure after Mitt finally gets the clue that he can’t change colors enough to be a big-time primary threat, he’ll drop out, and the knife-fight that will ensue between McCain and Giuliani will make the recent Obama-Clinton spat look like a love-in.

  4. Tano says:

    Mark,

    Whats your point? The issue is not whether Bill Clinton deserves praise for being a visionary leader or scorn for being a poll-driven pol. The issue is whether the change in NY was driven by federal legislation or whether it was a brilliant innovation of the mayor.

  5. Boyd says:

    …the city’s counter-terrorism center in the World Trade Center even though the building had been targeted in the past?

    You’ve said this at least a couple of times, Triumph, and I’m still confused. The emergency management office was in WTC 7, whereas the ’93 WTC attack was on WTC 1. When was WTC 7 targeted?

  6. Boyd says:

    Actually, there’s an additional, alternative question: what counter terrorism center was in WTC 1?

  7. Triumph says:

    The emergency management office was in WTC 7, whereas the ‘93 WTC attack was on WTC 1. When was WTC 7 targeted?

    Uhhh…WTC 7 was destroyed on 9/11.

    The World Trade Center was a 7-building complex which was first attacked in Feb. 1993 by Al-Quadea.

    Giuliani went to the WTC 3 command center on the morning of 9/11, but had to evacuate it because the building was structurally unsound after being hit by debris from the larger buildings in the WTC complex.

    It took days for the city to get a functioning communications structure operating after the attack due primarily to the fact that the $18 million facility was destroyed.

  8. Emmett Grogan says:

    Giuliani tax cuts? Fiscal conservative? First thing Bloomberg had to do: 18% property TAX INCREASE because of over 2Billion deficit from G.
    Long term NYC debt when G took over from Dinkins=$12 Billion. When he left=$61 Billion. Great fiscal hokus-pokus.
    Job Centers? A total hoax, Workfare, the old reactionary solution to poverty. Punishment. Over 600,000 lost Food Stamps/benefits, 2/3rds children.See “Giuliani Time” film.”Grand Illusion”book.