America's Mayor, America's President?
The Strange Career of Rudy Giuliani,
by Robert Polner, published May 2007


(Click for Amazon book review)

BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:

This book describes the anti-Giuliani attacks that will come if Giuliani is nominated for president. The book has been met with a lack of interest during the primaries -- Giuliani has not been critiqued at all for the negative material contained here, unlike the anti-Hillary and anti-Obama books, which have been pored over by pundits and critics alike. We reviewed another anti-Giuliani book, Giuliani: Flawed Or Flawless?, which at least in its title pretends to give Giuliani the possibility of favorability. In contrast, "America's Mayor" focuses almost exclusively on the flaws. The exceptions are a few begrudging acknowledgements that, indeed, Giuliani did well on 9/11; and did indeed make NYC a more attractive place to live.

The author sums up his purpose and his method, as well as his begrudging acknowledgements, in the introduction:

-- Jesse Gordon, jesse@OnTheIssues.org, Jan. 2008

OnTheIssues.org excerpts:  (click on issues for details)

Budget & Economy     1990s: Cut spending in 1st term but raised spending in 2nd.

Civil Rights     1990s: City jobs cuts fell disproportionately on black staff.     1990s: Arrested hundreds of unlicensed art vendors.

Corporations     1990s: NYC paid millions in “corporate retention deals”.

Crime     Enforced jaywalking laws as part of “broken windows” theory.     What has he done for minorities? They’re alive!     Father, Harold, served 16 months for armed robbery.     Arrested homeless for crimes like public urination.

Drugs     Tried to ban methadone treatment for heroin addicts.

Education     Lobbied to cut state aid to NYC schools.     Supports Ten commandments & prayer in schools.

Foreign Policy     1980s: Denied asylum to Haitian refugees.

Government Reform     No city reinvention, but success on crime, colleges & budget.

Homeland Security     Emergency HQ’s fuel storage contributed to WTC7 collapse.     Lack of unified command & communication added to 9/11 deaths.     WTC7 met Giuliani’s criteria for emergency HQ.

Jobs     1990s NYC unemployment fell but so did working class wages.

Principles & Values     Considered priesthood; rejected it because of celibacy.     Praised RFK in law school newspaper and bashed Goldwater.     Former Democrat; endorsed twice by the Liberal Party.

Tax Reform     Claimed 90s NYC tax cuts reduced deficits.     1994 hotel tax cut was effective, but didn’t raise revenue.

Technology     NYPD & NYFD radio problems not confronted before 9/11.     $90M cut in kid’s transit subsidy led to fare increase.     Interoperability failure worsened deaths on 9/11.

Welfare & Poverty     Sold 80% of city-owned abandoned homes to developers.     Moved 600,000 people off welfare during mayoral term.     NYC welfare reform focused on workfare assignments.

Click for quotations from other sources by: Rudy Giuliani