Elsevier, The Netherlands

 

What has Happened to the 9/11 Hero, Rudy Giuliani?

 

By Rik Kuethe

 

Translated By Dorian de Wind

 

January 15, 2007

 

The Netherlands - Elsevier – Original text (Dutch)

 

At the beginning of September 2001, the star of then New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani was definitely falling.

 

His zero-tolerance crime fighting policies* were seen as having been carried to the extreme and, because of domestic problems, he was no longer welcome in his official residence. His wife, Donna Hanover, performed in the play The Vagina Monologues. Giuliani was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

 

Bin Laden

 

The 9/11 attack changed this image in one fell swoop. On the cruelest day in the history of his city, the Mayor’s public actions were beyond praise. When president George W. Bush arrived in New York three days later and asked Giuliani if there was anything he could for him, the mayor answered that he would gladly execute Bin Laden.

 

When, in May, 2003, I interviewed Giuliani for the weekly Elsevier, I suggested that the only challenge left for him was the White House. Giuliani told me then, and he would be proven right, that he was certain that George W. Bush would be re-elected and, thus, that such a possibility would not present itself until 2008.

 

The worst ever

 

This year, Giuliani is indeed taking part in the battle for the presidency. But his campaign is already being referred to as “the worst ever.”

 

The ex-Mayor, with his liberal views on abortion and same-sex marriage, felt that there was not much to be gained in Conservative Iowa. For this reason he was a no-show at the first electorate test. Five days later, he fared not much better in New Hampshire.

 

Giuliani decided that conducting a campaign in these two small states would be a waste of his money, time and effort. He concentrated rather on Florida where, on January 29, there will be 57 delegates for the plucking.

 

Spoiled

 

The voters, including those outside of Iowa and New Hampshire, view this conduct as spoiled and arrogant.

 

Early in December 2007, according to all nationwide surveys, Giuliani led the field of Republican candidates by a considerable margin. But these days, he has fallen back to third place. Even in Florida he has to let McCain take the lead.

 

“Giuliani is finished,” the director of the new Hampshire University Center for opinion research told the Sunday Times. “He has possibly run the worst campaign I can remember.”

 

Lovers

 

Psychological campaign errors are not the only things that have plagued the Giuliani campaign. There have been revelations over security protection given to one of his lovers in New York at the expense of the city, while he was still Mayor. His health also raised questions Recently, his campaign plane returned in mid flight because of a bursting headache.

 

Suddenly it seems that no one in America is still interested in Guliani’s constant breast beating over his heroism on 9/11.

 

Because Giuliani’s stock has fallen so much this past month, the chances increase that another candidate will join the battle. We are talking about a very wealthy, one-time big- industrialist who was a Republican until June 2007, but who is now registered as an Independent.

 

His name? Michael Bloomberg. His position? New York Mayor.

 

 

 

ORIGINAL DUTCH TEXT HERE