Results tagged “michaelgoodwin”

Now that former mayor Rudy Giuliani is getting ready to officially throw in the presidential nomination race towel after his third place finish in the Florida primary, Giuliani watchers seem to be enjoying the chance to analyze his campaign's stunning collapse.

The NY Times' editorial board has made its endorsements for the upcoming primaries. While the Times' selection of Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama is interesting (the Times cites experience), we're very taken with the editorial about the Republican candidates.

Columbia University has weathered storm of criticism for inviting Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak at its World Leader Forum yesterday. Columbia president Lee Bollinger had said that critical questions would be posed, and he wasn't kidding: Before Ahmadinejad spoke, Bollinger gave a lengthy speech that attacked the leader's positions and intelligence, said he exhibited "all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator," and called him ridiculous. You can read Bollinger's speech here, but here are his final words:

Let me close with this comment. Frankly, and in all candor, Mr. President, I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions. But your avoiding them will in itself be meaningful to us. I do expect you to exhibit the fanatical mindset that characterizes so much of what you say and do. Fortunately, I am told by experts on your country, that this only further undermines your position in Iran with all the many good-hearted, intelligent citizens there. A year ago, I am reliably told, your preposterous and belligerent statements in this country (as in your meeting at the Council on Foreign Relations) so embarrassed sensible Iranian citizens that this led to your party’s defeat in the December mayoral elections. May this do that and more.

Continue reading "Columbia President Praised For Smacking Down Ahmadinejad"

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is visiting Columbia University today to give a speech for the World Leaders Forum. And he continued to get a big New York-style welcome: The Daily News has its "The Evil Has Landed" cover while Assemblyman Dov Hikind told protesters outside Columbia's gates yesterday, “He should be arrested when he comes to Columbia University, not speak at the university, for God’s sake. I call on New Yorkers to make the life of Ahmadinejad as he is in New York miserable.”

Governor Eliot Spitzer's "ChopperGate" has more of a stink today: It turns out that two of his senior aides refused to speak with the Attorney General's office during the investigation. While the investigation ultimately found that Spitzer aides didn't technically break the law when they were trying to use State Police records to discredit State Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, it makes it hard to believe Spitzer's assertion that his aides had cooperated fully with the AG's office.

But, the NY Times says ahem, reporting Bloomberg aides have working on a possible 2008 bid for the past two years. And the Sun pointed out how he "indulged" questions about national issues at the press conference yesterday. Then again, when asked if there were a situation when he would run, he said, "If everyone in the world was dead and I was the only one alive? Yeah, sure. I mean, come on."

Last night, former mayor Rudy Giuliani got a huge round of applause after tearing another candidate a new one about September 11. The Republican presidential candidates were participating in a Fox News Channel-sponsored debate in South Carolina, and the moment came when Representative Ron Paul of Texas discussed September 11. The video is above (the pertinent part comes at about 1:40 in) and here's how the NY Times described it:

At one point, one of Mr. Giuliani’s lesser-known opponents, Representative Ron Paul of Texas, gave what turned out to be a big platform to Mr. Giuliani when he appeared to suggest that the United States invited the attacks of Sept. 11 by having originally invaded Iraq.

Continue reading "During Debate, Rudy Seizes Moment to Talk 9/11"

The first debate amongst Republican presidential candidates was held last night at the Ronald Reagan Library. With former first lady Nancy Reagan sitting in the first row, Rudy Giuliani, as well as other candidates, mentioned the Gipper many times (partially due to the setting and prompting of moderators).

Last night, eight Democratic candidates met in the first debate of the already very long road to the 2008 presidential election. And the debate, which included Senators Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, and Joseph Biden, as well as former Senator John Edwards and Mike Gravel, Representative Dennis Kucinich, and New Mexico Bill Richardson, was more an opportunity to criticize President Bush's policies, versus each other. With eight candidates vying to make the most of the time, it was a somewhat underwhelming debate.

It finally happened: Rudy Giuliani has set up the "Rudy Giuliani Presidential Exploratory Committee, Inc." to consider a 2008 bid for the White House. While his aides say it's "not a declaration, it is not an announcement" - just "legal back-room stuff that you have to do" - it certainly makes things interesting given the possible presence of Hillary Clinton looking for the Democratic nomination. The Daily News' Michael Goodwin writes, "Hil vs. Giuliani: The race we've dreamed of", recalling the 2000 Senate race that Giuliani dropped out of after discovering he had prostate cancer. Ah, remember those days? Remember Rick Lazio?

The MTA and Transport Workers Union are supposedly talking again at the Grand Hyatt in Midtown, after a day of threats and fines, yet no action. To summarize: Justice Theodore Jones threatened to jail union leaders for contempt (and the strike) which threw the Post into a tizzy, the Mayor called the union a bunch of "frauds," and Governor "Not Doing Nothing" Pataki said talks would only begin when the strike ends. MTA Chairman Peter Kalikow reiterated their last offer (though their last offer last Friday wasn't really their last offer) and TWU President Roger Toussaint said the union would talk if the MTA dropped its pension demands (an employee contribution of 6% of the salary). Dare we hope these two crazy kids can work it out? For the sake of 7 million commuters?

It's Day 2 of the Transit Strike, and New York City's commuters are trying to get back to work, hopefully having learned something from their mistakes yesterday. Like making sure you have four people in a car to enter Manhattan below 96th Street. Or making sure you remembered how to Rollerblade (we saw a couple wipeouts). Or having some pocket change ready to grab another cup of joe from a coffee cart. Newsday has a good, even-handed look at what the strike did yesterday - and what it could mean for today. The story we're most intrigued by, though, is the NY Times' explanation of the MTA's pension demands, namely how the MTA's request for workers to contribute 6% of their salary to pension funds would have only meant an MTA savings of $20 million or less annually. Which is about the amount we think they siphon just by existing. God, we hate the MTA's accounting so much.

Given that Mayor Michael Bloomberg's victory had been predicted for a few weeks, Gothamist would have thought that the NY Post might have put a little more thought into its post-election cover. But, instead, it's a poorly Photoshopped (as is keeping with the Post's tradition) and terrible that it could be an instant classic - we'll need to sit with this one.

Keeping in the electoral mood, Gothamist wants to point out the Museum of the City of New York's exhibit on former Mayor Ed Koch, who is the first mayor we remember (sorry, Abe Beame). The exhibit is called "New York Comes Back: The Mayoralty of Edward I. Koch," which coincides with the book with the same name by Daily News writer Michael Goodwin, and it promises to reveal "the accomplishments and the controversies of the Koch era, shedding new light on one of the great comebacks in urban history." Expect a lot of photographs from his term, 1978-1989. When we looked up Koch's bio on the city website, there's this quote from his inauguration:

These have been hard times. We have been drawn across the knife-edge of poverty. We have been shaken by troubles that would have destroyed any other city. But we are not any other city. We are the city of New York and New York in adversity towers above any other city in the world.

The new Freedom Tower design was presented yesterday, showing the more fortress-like design (the NY Post calls it "Fort Zero") that's supposed to meet the NYPD's standards for safer and more bomb-resistant buildings. The jury is out: It's less ugly than before (at least this design had one vision, versus two stitched together), but it's still...lacking. But safer, so it seems New Yorkers are being asked to choose between safe designs and ones that can really lift people's spirits. Curbed had instant reviews yesterday (a mixed-bag), and today, the NY Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff's assessment is, as expected, withering: "The new obelisk-shaped tower, which stands on an enormous 20-story concrete pedestal, evokes a gigantic glass paperweight with a toothpick stuck on top." However, the criticism has come into a new stage, where people are pitying architect David Childs for having to whip together a design in a few weeks.

What did you think of Giuliani's speech?

Mayor Bloomberg has released his second Campaign Accountability Statement, which shows the various promises/initiatives he and his administration have proposed and what their status is. For example, "Abolish the Board of Education" is an initiative, and the update (same for 2003 and 2004) was "The school governance agreement led to mayoral control," so its status for 2003 and 2004 is "Done." It's kind of awesome, because it lays out the hundreds of things the Mayor has considered, but it's also overwhelming at 47 pages. Here's one example we thought was interesting: