Video of the Day: Giuliani Not Perfect in New Ad

Rudy Giuliani has a new 1-minute ad proclaiming his credentials to run the country by way of his leadership in NYC. A full transcript of the ad is after the jump but the gist is that Giuilani turned New York City from an "unmanageable, ungovernable" economically depressed crime-ridden hellhole into "the safest large city in America," "the best example of conservative government in the country."

Interestingly enough, there's no mention of 9/11. And at the end of the ad, Giuliani says, " I believe I’ve been tested in a way in which the American people can look to me. They’re not going to find perfection, but they’re going to find somebody who has dealt with crisis almost on a regular basis and has had results."

The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz called the ad "largely factual but rather selective." The NY Times' Julie Bosman adds, "When [Giuilani] took office, his predecessor, Mayor David N. Dinkins, had already begun a $1 billion program to increase the ranks of police officers, and crime had begun to decline." The Giuliani campaign does offer a fact sheet to back up the claims in the ad, but didn't include instances of Giuliani's imperfection.

Text of Giuliani's "Tested" ad:

New York City is the third- or fourth-largest government in the country. It’s one of the largest economies in the United States. They used to call it unmanageable, ungovernable. A large majority of New Yorkers wanted to leave and live somewhere else. It was a city that was in financial crisis, a city that was the crime capital of America. A city that was the welfare capital of America. A city that was in very, very difficult condition when I became the mayor. By the time I left office, New York City was being proclaimed as the best example of conservative government in the country. We turned it into the safest large city in America, the welfare-to-work capital of America, and most importantly, the spirit of the people of the city had changed. Instead of being hopeless, the large majority of people had hope. So, I believe I’ve been tested in a way in which the American people can look to me. They’re not going to find perfection, but they’re going to find somebody who has dealt with crisis almost on a regular basis and has had results. And, in many cases, exceptional results. Results people thought weren’t possible. I’m Rudy Giuliani, and I approve this message.

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By Jen Chung in News on November 15, 2007 3:11 PM

Comments [rss]

Amanda Harletsch

ahhh, and I'm soooo not voting for Rudy!

-sans english but with right of vote, yours Amanda

Amanda Harletsch

matty, if you look out of your nationalist provincialism maybe you can see that english has mutated in the last century a lot...and french is not the only other language that has infiltrated american English, besides no language is a static set of rules or remains pure in time. So yeah, english is my 3rd language... as such, it is very "flexible". I don't think grammatical rules are beyond content. FYI: english language is not a requisite to get legally in this land of "yours".

Novanglus

Daley sucks, but one can actually pinpoint specific Rudy programs and ideas that can be attributed to the change NYC faced....apart from the national growth many cities experienced. Also keep in mind that even in the economic expansion of the internet age, many other cities crumbled.

matty

Also, chicago was called "beirut by the lake" in a 1983 economist article. Chicago got way better in the 90s. Should daley be president? Fuck no. The whole country got better in the 90s. If you want to thank anyone, thank the free market.

matty

Who let Amanda Harlech in this country before teaching her the english language?

slappy

@ Novanglus,

Thanks for your reply.

I agree that the plight of wage earners is a national disgrace and not confined to NYC. and I agree with bklynd that the guy would be a disaster for all of us in Washington.

BTW, Its not just a bleeding heart attitude that stands up for the poor or struggling working people (or the plight of the middle class at this point). Free market economy has to work for everyone. Not just the rich. If it doesn't the rich will not stay rich for very long. Think about it.

The conservative republican economic program is not working. War has always good for the rich. Though, this war is starting to sour even with the conservative right business community. Without the war they have nothing and they can't really afford to escalate it.

Anyway, perhaps I am getting off topic...

GOP

There was NYC before Giuliani and NYC after Giuliani.

Will

Novanglus, please...

Crime went down in nearly every city the period Rudy was in office (and started going down before that. Serious crime fell by 16% from 1990-93, the last three years of the Dinkins administration, the first time it had in 36 years )

And I love NYC but much of the city outside of Manhattan is embarrassing, and saying it resembles a 3rd world city isn't far off. Paris, London, Stockholm, Tokyo have a far better quality of life.

And if you want to compare NY today to NY in the '70s, in 1970 there was a surplus of 270,000 affordable apartments in NYC. In 1999 there was a shortage of nearly 390,000 affordable apartments.

Rudy began the process of giving away the city to corporations and the wealthy, and I don't think he should get a promotion just because he happened to be mayor on 9/11.

bklynd

oh shit, sorry for the mangled link.

bklynd

Maybe check out the doc [url=http://www.netflix.com/Movie/G...]Giuliani Time[/url]. It's a pretty sober recounting of Guiliani's 8 years - even if you don't buy every argument (for instance, Keating argues that there's no proof "broken windows" did anything) it generally respects your intelligence and reminds you of what went down.

The main thing that came through for me was that Giuliani was constantly pushing beyond the boundaries of the law in his efforts to get people off of the welfare roles etc., and he would frequently get overturned in court. Imagine what he'd do in the name of the "war of terror"! It would make Bush look like a mere warm-up act.

Tim N.

Thank you, Rudy Giuliani.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I say again, thank you.

Before you came along, we New Yorkers were just a disorderly mob of jaywalkers, squeege supporters, and free Negroes. Forced to rely on ourselves and our neighbors for learning how to make our way in a city full of "other people." And all the while, we prayed for someone who would deliver us from this evil, who would do our thinking and feeling for us, show us our errors, make us march the straight and narrow, identify and address all our fears, and, of cours, get rid of the free Negroes. You knew that people really didn't want any controversy at all, whether it be art, music, or just the chance of meeting up with "the other."

You knew our fears, and you knew just how scared we were. And you knew that they only way to make them go away was to recarve the city out in your own image... narrow, intolerant, and sanctimonious.

Thank you.

Novanglus

Slappy, valid points that I respect as well.

The entire city turned around under Rudy in many ways, not just crime. I honestly do attribute it to him.

However, I agree with you that he is not perfect and that jsut because he did good here, that it does not mean he will make a good President.

As for working people, it's gotten bad everywhere in our country, and I don't think that has much to do with Mayoral duties....any business-driven city has developed those issues and it's a national economy thing unfortunately.

Amanda, you said quality of life sucks, but you talk about ARCHITECTURE. What does that have to do with it? In all honesty, may I ask what you do for a living?

If you think the city is dirty, that has to do with people not littering and taking care of their city, which is something that I blame citizens on mostly...and again has nothing to do with Rudy...unless you feel negatively towards EVERY Mayor this city has had in the past half century.

As for architecture, you're comparing West Coast cities, which are newer and build very differently than NYC. It just doesn't compare. Do you want to to tear down older gothic structures because you don't feel that the architecture looks good or because some dirt might get into the building's nooks and crannies?

England is the same way, btw. The architecture is not much different at all.

I also don't know anyplace in Cali that actually has very nice or admirable architecture.

But if you think that dirty streets and architecture are our biggestproblems...then we must be a GREAT city, because that's fairly petty.

Amanda Harletsch

ehhh what about something like Paris, or London...?

And the whole we are just too young...any city in west coast is cleaner and has better architecture than this city. It is a matter of values. In NYC money is first and last...quality of life, dignity, beauty...that is only for the few.

slappy

@Novanglus

Yeah, I was and I was.

I respect your opinion. But...

He is not the man of vision he makes himself out to be. And as far as the record goes- after the crack madness in the 80's it was largely community based initiatives that put an end to that. The police had little to do with it. Nor should we expect that a mayor or a police department is "responsible" for fixing crime. "Crime" is a complex phenomena with a labyrinth of cause and effect. The economy being chief among them. NYC has gotten worse for working people, not better. I credit the people of NYC for coming through his tenure in a relatively civilized manner. People do what they gotta do in the face of idiot "leaders' like him. Just my opinion. We are still paying for it.

Novanglus

Not that some of you are not allowed to have your opinions, but I honestly look at it as people who very easily forgot, or don't know, how bad this city was back before Rudy.

Were you born in NY? Were you an adult in the 70s or early 80s?

I know our city isn't perfect, but it's not easy to run a city of 8+ million.

I wouldn't consider any of the police's tactics as "strong arm". They fought crime hard. I was still young when this stuff was happening and people I know went to jail....and deserved it. I'm lucky I didn't fall to such influences.

Can you tell me how the quality of life sucks? Can you name other cities of similar populations and natural challenges that do it better?

Housing is fine for me. Can you share how you are having a tough time?

Regardless of what you think might be subpar these days (again, nto saying we are perfect), but it is literally many times better than how it was 20-30 years ago.

slappy

Liar

kane

Even if you do credit Giuliani with bringing crime down in NYC during his tenure (which is difficult to do, considering it was on a downward swing when he took office and crime went down in almost every other large city during this time), it was through strong-arm tactics and overzealous policing. What happened to the Street Crime Unit? It was found out, after Giuliani left office, that it was a poor policing move and was disbanded.

And what about police corruption? Two words: Bernard Kerik.

Giuliani for nothing in 2008.

Amanda Harletsch

Are fucking kidding me?

Best city in America...If by that you mean some streets in Manhattan, maybe....

The quality of life in this city SUCKS!

Housing SUCKS ASS! And public transportation rolls acceptably but is DIRTY as hell. The city looks like slums... poor neighborhhods in 3rd world countries... Maybe not the case for like a 10% of the city territory...but has he been outside the cool areas? Shit wholes!

Giuliani will always use the whole "apocliptic" aura of new york as his worse enemy...he being the hero of course.