The will of the people rang out loud and clear. Even New Yorkers who had never had a kind word to say about their out-spoken mayor were calling his name out in the streets. “Rudy! Rudy!” His unwavering grace under pressure has transformed Rudy Guiliani from a lame duck subject of tabloid ridicule to one of the most respected men in America and downright adored in his own city.
As a former New Yorker, I have also had my issues with Mayor Guiliani during his terms as mayor. He has at times been too brash, too harsh, and too combative. In the past, when patience and finesse were needed, he showed neither. During that last mayoral election, I applauded my mother’s decision to support his opponent. However, his handling of the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center left me no less than stunned at his ability to bring a shattered city together. It took the experience gained over each and every minute of his two terms in office. Only in that time could he have learned enough about New York to know what to do to help guide the city back from hell. So, in the names of all the family and friends I still have in New York City, I am happy to stand corrected about Rudy Guiliani.
I am, however, a bit miffed at the New Yorkers who are now decrying the term limitation that prevents Guiliani from running for a third term. Their arguments: the city needs Guiliani’s guidance to heal, a transition would be too jarring, etc. My personal favorite is from New York Daily News columnist Michael Kramer who wrote “[N]o one is a Republican of Democrat these days. We are all Americans and New Yorkers. The simple way . . . to give content to those expressions is to embrace the idea of expanding our choice for mayor.” Choice? That sounds suspiciously like the word term limit opponents like myself argued that voters give up when they back legislation that limits the terms of elected officials. New Yorkers voted in favor of term limits in 1993 and city council’s attempts to repeal the law failed twice in the last eight years. Now, when faced with the very real consequences of those actions, not everyone is a quite so sure term limits are that great after all. Read the remainder of this entry »