From "The Calmest Person in the Room"
The image haunts him to this day: Two people, high overhead, leap hand-in-hand to their death from one of the blazing towers of the World Trade Center.On that September morning five years ago, a memory of his father came to Mayor Rudy Giuliani. In it, the Brooklyn plumber and bartender was telling his only child, "In a crisis, you have to become the calmest person in the room."
Giuliani became more than that. His suit coated with ash from the wreckage, he stood defiant, vowing that New Yorkers would show the world the meaning of courage. He soothed victims' families, attended funerals of police and firefighters, rallied his fellow citizens on radio and television.
He'd overcome hardships before, including a bitter, public end to his marriage, and a battle with prostate cancer. Alongside the terrifying challenges of 9/11, they're the kind of events that could shatter anyone's public and personal life. But Giuliani's resolve to triumph is stronger than ever, and now he is about to find out if his legacy of leadership endures.
After the coming midterm elections, he will decide whether to seek the Republican nomination for President in 2008, or whether to carry on with the lucrative business ventures he took up post-9/11. Having spent years in public service -- as a U.S. Attorney in New York, an Associate Attorney General during the Reagan Administration, and two terms as mayor of the Big Apple -- Giuliani, 62, is finally cashing in. Chair and CEO of Giuliani Partners LLC, he's making millions as a security and crisis management consultant. He's also a law partner with Bracewell & Giuliani, and gives speeches that reportedly earn him $100,000 a pop. Still, he insists that his current work is about the challenge rather than the money. "Learning more about business, finance, how to straighten out organizations -- that's very exciting to me," he says.
But when he talks about public service, his intensity ratchets up. "I miss being involved in the most important things that are going on. When some crisis happens, you feel that's what you've been trained for, what you know how to do."
Iraq. Iran. North Korea. Al Qaeda, global warming, health care, debt. If challenges are what Giuliani's looking for, he'd have plenty to tackle as President of the United States.
Strong and Poised
Although he's officially undecided about running, he's making plans like a candidate. In recent months he's raised lots of cash for the Republican Party. He's also campaigned for hardcore conservatives and spoken to evangelical groups like the Global Pastors Network, praising their accomplishments and reminding them of his own.Says Fred Siegel, a Progressive Policy Institute fellow, and author of the Giuliani biography The Prince of the City, "Giuliani rescued New York from decline. In 1993, crime in the city was out of control. Public spaces had been taken over by lowlifes. There was an evacuation mentality -- people wanted to sell their apartments and get out."
Through tough, innovative law enforcement, the mayor oversaw a steep drop in crime and forced the clean-up of New York's trash-strewn streets. Giuliani won praise for the stunning rejuvenation of Times Square, family-friendly after years of being overrun with porn shops and drug dealers. "He showed that New York was governable again," says Siegel.
But his tenure was also steeped in controversy. Civil rights leaders accused him of turning cops loose on minority neighborhoods: Police brutalization of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima became their Exhibit A. He was also regularly criticized for being harshly combative with those who opposed him, from union leaders to the education bureaucracy.
And then there was the unraveling of his personal life. After 16 years of marriage, he split from actress Donna Hanover, mother of his two kids, then ages 14 and 10. The breakup occurred months after gossip columnists had begun writing about his ill-concealed relationship with divorced nurse Judith Nathan, whom he married three years later, in 2003. At the same time, he announced that he was battling prostate cancer and would withdraw from New York's senatorial race.
Now cancer-free, Giuliani has emerged strong and poised to learn whether voters will overlook his contradictions in favor of his ability to lead. So far, that seems a possibility. In numerous polls of self-described Republicans this year, Giuliani ranks first or second as the Presidential nominee (vying with the party's presumed front-runner, Sen. John McCain). In polls of the general electorate, he edges out Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the leading choice of Democrats.
Why, then, would he hesitate to run? Though he's tough on law and order and knows how to cut budgets and lower taxes, socially conservative Republicans, who have a strong say in determining their party's nominee, disagree with him on his pro-choice, pro-gay rights, and pro-gun control positions. "We have probably irreconcilable differences on life and family," Rev. Jerry Falwell said in a recent television interview. "I couldn't support him for President." Neither, apparently, could Paul Weyrich, one of the bellwethers of the conservative movement, who calls Giuliani "quite unacceptable" as the nominee.
Giuliani's response is that the Republican Party needs to be a broad tent, embracing moderates like him, to stay in power. And, past a certain point, he doesn't concern himself with naysayers. In his book Leadership, he writes, "Occasionally your principles will differ from the official party line. True leadership requires choosing, in every instance, the position that allows you to sleep at night."
Come November 2008, the public will make a similar choice. In these disturbing times, which leader will help them sleep at night? For the voters, Rudy Giuliani has a story to tell: Remember 9/11.