Giuliani: Flawed or Flawless? The Oral Biography

The right man in the right place at the worst possible timeLet's give Rudy credit: he knew that not just the people of the City of New York were going to watch his every move and listen to his every word, but that the entire world was going to be looking to him for guidance, for updates, for information, and Rudy rose to the occasion. Rudy is a seasoned politician with thirty years of law enforcement training to fall back on; he had all of his connections with the Justice Department, with the Police Department, with the law enforcement community, so he was a good mayor to have in place at the time. You were not dealing with just an act of trauma or a terrible act of natural devastation; this was an intentional act of criminal conduct, and he understood not only about preserving the crime scene but doing the rescue operation. He understood that more than other mayors would have, even if they were more popular. Rudy had command of that naturally, based on his experience, and that gave comfort to the world--that the person in charge of New York was someone who had brought the Mafia to its knees; who had taken on big business; who was not going to be intimidated. He rose to the occasion and a lot of people who hated him before 9/11 are among his biggest fans now.--Benjamin Brafman, partner, Brafman Associates, PC, from Giuliani