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As a friend of mine said, “Giuliani thinks he’s Batman, he became obsessed with saving Gotham, and then as he got older he starting going batshit crazy.”
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This is a great analysis of Giuliani (and I think I may steal it).
In his first term, he really was Batman, cleaning up some major problems caused by decades of entrenched Democratic leadership beholden to various pressure groups. The crime reduction efforts were continuations of programs from the Dinkins administration and the Times Square revitalization was largely driven by state agencies (and dated from well before he was in office), but he drove and encouraged these programs. It was really a brilliant effort, and to the extent he stepped on civil liberties or tried to control information flow, it didn’t seem too bad because of the progress he was making. One particularly troubling incident was his firing of Police Commissioner Bill Bratton for the apparent reason that he was taking too much of the spotlight on the crime reduction efforts away from Giuliani.
Personally, he was like Batman, too, available 24-7 to come rushing in whenever and wherever needed. It seemed like he’d be there whenever a cop got into a fender bender or a fireman coughed three times after leaving a burning building. (In contrast, Bloomberg leaves town for the weekend and doesn’t tell the media where he is going, often taking his private jet to his house in Bermuda. This caused the media some frustration when he wasn’t immediately available for a comment on every little thing that happened in the City, but they got over it.)
By the end of his first term, he had defeated all of the real villians. But what is Batman to do if the Joker, the Penguin and their ilk is gone? He goes racing around Gotham pouncing on whatever infractions caught his eye. That guy didn’t clean up after his poodle – race there in the Batmobile, tie him up and deposit him on the Commissioner’s desk for punishment.
In his second term, he repeatedly turned his focus on little things that offended him but were innocuous to most New Yorkers, Ferrets, newstands, taxis, the exhibits at the Brooklyn Museum to name a few. When something offended him, he would go against it in the most heavy-handed way possible – causing his administration to be repeatedly held in violation of the First Amendment and other civil rights. It also became apparent that he was managing the City’s finances by using one-off revenue events and other shady accounting to put off necessary tax increases until his successor’s term (something which Bloomberg tackled in a very straightforward manner, earning initial enmity but eventual support).
What Giuliani’s tenure as Mayor teaches me is that were he elected President, he would continue (or even increase) the Bush Administration’s secretive and authoritarian tendencies.