When Rudy first became mayor I was an SSI Claims Rep in the Bronx so I do know a thing or two.
New York City’s welfare department sent us so many claimants who weren’t sick we had to do a special notation “welfare sent them. They don’t know why they’re here.:
It was crack and drive by shooting days. New York was hit hard by the recession that had begun in 87. But the economy began to improve officially on March 31, 1991.
With a good national and city economy fewer people do drugs or randomly shoot other people. Much as i hate to credit Newt Gingrich with anything–it was his Contract With America that ended “welfare as we knew it.:
Rudy made some great quality of life changes in his first term. However he thought he was elected dictator in his second term and went too far.
He announced his divorce in a press conference before informing his then wife. Had he been Clinton he would have been crucified
By September 2001, most New Yorkers couldn’t wait for his term to end. We all know what happened next. He did ask for his term to be extended.
The more I have been reading about 9/11, Bernie Kerik and some others, the more I begin to doubt that he was this great leader we all thought him to be. Kerik spending the day kissing his ass instead of being in the trenches as a police commissioner should have been.
I have written a lot about Kerik. He’s slime, sleaze, gross and those are the nice things.
A person is judged by the company he keeps. Judith Regan, Kerik’s former lover announced her law suit. Of course it has a Rudy angle–refuse to dignify him by giving him a last name.
RudyG fails in that area as he does in so many others. And I kind of want him to be the Republican candidate as I can’t believe he could win. But stranger things have happened.
After eight years of Bush we deserve a good president. I can’t stand the thought of four years under Rudy
If he becomes president we truly deserve to be the joke of the world
You know, there are so many people screaming about how wonderful of a “leader” Rudy was – those people tend to forget what NYC became after his shine wore off, after he consolidated power… imagine if he had the same opportunities under things like the PATRIOT ACT…
Great post. And thanks for the award, too. Missed that the other day.