This Week's Attitude
"America's Mayor" Not Qualified To Be Our President
By Neil S. Friedman

Rudy Giuliani's kept a relatively low profile since he exited City Hall five years ago. He keeps popping up now and then, including semi-regular appearances at Yankee Stadium to watch his favorite team, making sure we don't forget him and his lofty ambitions.

To no one's surprise, he returned to center stage, but was quickly consigned to secondary media status following the Fox/O.J. Simpson debacle, when he recently announced he was in "the exploratory stage" for a possible run at the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. He is also reportedly building a network of donors from whom he hopes will significantly contribute to any future campaign. Arizona Senator John McCain, who'll likely be his toughest competitor, beat him to the punch when he announced similar plans a day earlier. Last week, Giuliani's decision came a little bit closer to being official when his exploratory committee registered with the Federal Election Commission, while McCain filed a statement of organization.

Predicting a Giuliani White House attempt was as easy as picking the New York Yankees to be in the baseball playoffs every year - or as unsurprising as this writer evaluating that decision.

Giuliani's committee barely had time to set an agenda and test the waters to determine his presidential prospects when a survey revealed he is in a statistical tie with McCain among New York State's voters, albeit slightly ahead of the veteran Arizona pol, who already has presidential campaign experience, and any other possible GOP contenders. His prospects dimmed when the poll found among all voters that Giuliani trailed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 53 to 39 percent. And that's six years after he was set to face her in the race for New York's junior senate seat before he dropped out due to health and marital problems.

Regardless, it's way too early to calculate who will win in '08 or even who's going to be in the race from either party. But, like when Al Gore faced George W. Bush in 2000, the next presidential campaign will lack an incumbent for only the second time in 20 years - Bush I vs. Michael Dukakis - and the third time since 1968 when Nixon defeated Humphrey.

Still, the early survey results can't be good news for the Brooklyn native. Obviously, sensible New Yorkers remember Giuliani more for his first seven years as a notoriously rigid, hard-nosed politician than his few weeks as "America's Mayor" - a gratuitous title bestowed on him by Oprah Winfrey - in the difficult days following the September 11

terrorist attacks.

Many New Yorkers are not quick to forget how he bullied those who opposed his tactics, as well as those with whom he disagreed. And he can't flaunt the city's crime-reducing methods, which continue long after he departed City Hall.

Nonetheless, in early national polls, Giuliani seems to fare better in some regions than his possible opponents and came out on top in a popularity poll of possible 2008 presidential wannabes. But that's almost certainly based solely on his national television appearances in the months following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Ah, but wait. If they bother to learn about the real, self-absorbed Giuliani and his whole track record as mayor, they'll gradually back off and find another choice, especially when they discover his rather liberal views on abortion and gay rights - particularly conservatives from the Deep South who won't cotton to his alleged extramarital hijinks (does Bill Clinton ring a bell?), which likely led to his divorce. But Giuliani's unofficial campaign is already attempting to moderate his former position on some controversial issues, by claiming that it is "not as black and white" as perceived.

Sounds exactly like a presidential candidate trying to appease a segment of voters who might otherwise reject his liberal outlook.

And he's going to have an equally uneasy time trying to persuade progressives he's shed himself of his reputation for not embracing minorities, his customary failure to meet with black leaders following a crisis and his insensitive attitude toward that segment of the city, which inspired the disapproving term, "Giuliani time," that surfaced during his mayoral term when police unfairly treated the city's minorities in several incidents - including the Amadou Diallo shooting - when innocent black men were victimized due to police overreaction and excessive brutality.

When the 2008 presidential campaign goes into full swing next year, the polls will fluctuate for weeks, and maybe months, as the electorate learns more about the candidates gauging the mood of the nation as they seek the opportunity to lead this country. Though he wholly supports the president's Iraq policy, one of Giuliani's greatest weaknesses is his lack of foreign policy experience, which, despite lots of advice, seemed to create the current administration's overseas dilemma. And one thing voters don't need next time around is a "been there, done that."

Politicians don't typically stick to their hardcore beliefs or more than a handful of campaign promises when they finally take office. More often than not there are instances when compromise must triumph. However, in Rudy Giuliani's history as a federal prosecutor and Big Apple mayor, there is scarce indication that the word "compromise" exists in his vocabulary. That kind of character flaw could be a major stumbling block that supersedes his acumen for stalwart crisis management and comes back to haunt him and damper his White House hopes.

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