Rudy: 9/11 “part of our present,” not our past
posted at 12:15 pm on September 11, 2009 by Ed Morrissey
Fox News in New York City talks to the man who stood tall on 9/11 in the Big Apple, Rudy Giuliani, who shares his memories and talks about the lessons of the awful day eight years ago. Giuliani warned that a lot of people have forgotten the lessons of the terrorist attacks that killed almost 3,000 people — not the military and first responders, but ordinary people and more than a few politicians. He hits the nail on the head when he tells Fox that 9/11 is not part of our history, but very much part of the present, and that a failure to understand that could result in another terrorist attack:
Regardless of how one sees Giuliani from a policy perspective, and there’s plenty of room for disagreement with him there, he represents the kind of gut-check leadership most people crave from their politicians. Rudy became America’s Mayor in the aftermath of the attacks because he acted; he got to the ground and took command. He gave us our first sense that things were not going to be all right — no one could possibly have thought that — but that someone had arrived to put a stop to things getting much, much worse.
Regardless of party or policy, America needed that sense of command, of response, and of fight on September 11, 2001. No matter what else Rudy Giuliani may do in his career, I will always say a prayer of thanks that he was there when we needed him. Like the commentators on Fox, I’m pretty sure that voters will look for that kind of catastrophe-tested leadership at some level in the future.
Blowback
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Go Rudy!
jhffmn on September 11, 2009 at 12:18 PM
The next Gov. of New York!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1luckydogg on September 11, 2009 at 12:19 PM
Ran the worst campaign ever. What’s with that?
ndulik on September 11, 2009 at 12:19 PM
Yep. Barely anyone on the left has the guts to point that out, and not many more on the right do, either. Most of them want to forget just as much of the rest of the country does. We want to go back into our protective little bubble where nothing ever happens. It hasn’t even been a decade, and we’re racing back to paradigm we foolishly held September 10th.
MadisonConservative on September 11, 2009 at 12:21 PM
Rudy did a great job 8 yrs ago. I think him for that.
becki51758 on September 11, 2009 at 12:22 PM
think=thank
becki51758 on September 11, 2009 at 12:23 PM
Thank you Rudy.
NTWR on September 11, 2009 at 12:23 PM
Stalking Horse for McCain designed to split Conservatives. Same role people like Libby Dull filled in 200o for The Shrub so we would not rally around a real Conservative
bill30097 on September 11, 2009 at 12:23 PM
You tell ‘em champ….
9/11 is over when RadIslam is contained…not a second sooner
sven10077 on September 11, 2009 at 12:23 PM
I guess you have to be smarter then the clip, I can’t get it to play.
Cindy Munford on September 11, 2009 at 12:23 PM
That’s great and all, but what project did Rudy volunteer for today? Service to others, that’s what it is all about.
myrenovations on September 11, 2009 at 12:24 PM
He listened to “Republican Stategists.”
WashJeff on September 11, 2009 at 12:25 PM
Not “could”, but “will”.
MarkTheGreat on September 11, 2009 at 12:25 PM
Bozo wouldn’t have a clue what to do and in no way could he demonstrate leadership, courage, or love of country.
txag92 on September 11, 2009 at 12:26 PM
Do I need to go into an ACORN office for my assignment to fulfill my obligaton to Obama?
WashJeff on September 11, 2009 at 12:26 PM
Obama can take his “day of service” and stick it someplace.
rollthedice on September 11, 2009 at 12:26 PM
Yes, that would be helpful. Or you could just spend the day filling out voter registration cards on your own.
myrenovations on September 11, 2009 at 12:28 PM
Rudy would have been a great president.
I hope becomes our next governor in NY.
Rudy hits it out of the park in telling Americans that 9/11 can never be forgotten.
Bloomberg had the audacity to say he will follow Obama’s call for National day of service, when he still has not rebuilt the towers.
What a disgrace.
I wish Rudy can be mayor again.
cubachi on September 11, 2009 at 12:29 PM
This “National Day of Service” is an outrage, and a sham.
Enoxo on September 11, 2009 at 12:30 PM
Today is Patriot Day as congress and Bush designated it already. You can’t call it the National Day of Service, Obummer, the holiday is taken.
NTWR on September 11, 2009 at 12:30 PM
I was already taught that skill, plus how to vote for dead people, in the IL public school system.
WashJeff on September 11, 2009 at 12:30 PM
Maybe he can rape a waitress. Teddy Kennedy would have wanted it that way.
alliebobbitt on September 11, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Agreed. He dropped or modulated all the qualities of his character which made him such a unique and dynamic figure. Hugely disillusioning for me, as I’d been a supporter of his for awhile. Yet these qualities seemed to re-emerge at the convention when he gave such a biting and excellent speech. It’s the phenomenon of strategists at work, I think, and I’m sorry Rudy got sucked into the vortex.
rrpjr on September 11, 2009 at 12:32 PM
Rudy gave NYC comfort…Bush comforted the Nation. The Country should thank both of these leaders today.
David in ATL on September 11, 2009 at 12:32 PM
Obama’s 2001 Statement full text needs to be located and produced before taking at face value whatever his media would fabricate in fraudulent representation for today’s One in Office what his first response really was.
maverick muse on September 11, 2009 at 12:32 PM
National Day of Service is now on Tuesday, November 2, 2010.
faraway on September 11, 2009 at 12:33 PM
Here’s a question…
If Rudy had been able to stay mayor for another term (like Bloomberg wishes to do) would his personality, power and will have gotten the buildings re-built and the memorial constructed in a better (not pc) way?
myrenovations on September 11, 2009 at 12:34 PM
No understanding the crazy muslims.
becki51758 on September 11, 2009 at 12:35 PM
Isn’t it strange,sad ,deplorable whatever you want to call it that o can find time to go to union picnic or visit a corrupt,tax-evading acorn instead of visiting New York today?
ohiobabe on September 11, 2009 at 12:35 PM
I like Rudy, a lot. I loved his rallying of American spirit, and his great endorsement of Sarah Palin at the last GOP POTUS Convention.
Every leader has his cross to bear, including Rudy, misgivings for sending so many heroes into the inferno with faulty equipment, inadequate radio contact.
maverick muse on September 11, 2009 at 12:35 PM
And it wasn’t just the emergency management stuff which was impressive enough considering so much of the NYC first response system was disrupted. He was out there from nearly the beginning working to find office space for displaced businesses and doing all those other things that needed to be done to bring the city back.
highhopes on September 11, 2009 at 12:35 PM
Maybe it should be nuclear power plant day. We should build a dozen over the next decade and cut off billions in funding for the Islamic terrorists. It would be both patriotic and a service.
dedalus on September 11, 2009 at 12:35 PM
Well said. Continuing to Read My Pet Goat for 7 minutes after being notified of the attacks shows the cowardice and helplessness of the former male cheerleader.
simplesimon on September 11, 2009 at 12:36 PM
I thank God we had George Bush as President and Rudy Guiliani as NYC Mayor that day. Al Gore would have surrendered America, and a lesser (well, Democrat) mayor of the greatest city in the world would have been flummoxed.
Liam on September 11, 2009 at 12:39 PM
myrenovations on September 11, 2009 at 12:34 PM
Shoulda Woulda Coulda …
We can yet direct our focus to promote Rudy’s responsible career. I understand he made a great attorney general, fighting the mafia as well as union corruption, cleaning up NYC. No one else has ever matched his work giving him recognition as “America’s Mayor”.
maverick muse on September 11, 2009 at 12:39 PM
My guess is that he would not. First, the use of the site is contentious and runs from a total memorial to the 9/11/01 atrocities to a ramped up commercial complex. There’s also a serious question how much office space is actually necessary (the WTC was somewhat of a white elephant in that regard). No Mayor would be able to sort through all of that and keep things going at a breakneck pace.
highhopes on September 11, 2009 at 12:39 PM
Even though I personally disagree with Rudy on social issues, I think he is a natural leader and patriotic American.
New York City was fortunate that he was at the helm that day.
I’ll always respect and admire him for the way he refused that check from that Saudi prince who implied that we deserved 9/11 because of foreign policy with Israel.
Rudy’s got guts and cojones. We need more leaders like that.
atheling on September 11, 2009 at 12:39 PM
Ban this muppet, please.
MadisonConservative on September 11, 2009 at 12:39 PM
ahh…theres the troll.
becki51758 on September 11, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Oh God. He’s back again. Hi race fans!
NathanG on September 11, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Bingo. What is missing today.
publiuspen on September 11, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Second that. It’s time for this turd to be flushed down the toilet.
atheling on September 11, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Bush, as we all were, was stunned for a few minutes. What explains 8 years of leftist cowardice?
faraway on September 11, 2009 at 12:40 PM
God Bless George W. Bush for the good leadership that he provided America in our hour of need.
May Bush be moved to facilitate conservatism today rather than the progressive take with whatever influence he may have.
maverick muse on September 11, 2009 at 12:41 PM
link?
upinak on September 11, 2009 at 12:41 PM
Heaven knows that all presidents have the capability to don a cape and fight all things evil at the drop of a hat.
thomasaur on September 11, 2009 at 12:41 PM
Bush didnt want to scare the little kids by running out the door. NOw whats obamas excuse?
becki51758 on September 11, 2009 at 12:42 PM
did you eat lead paint chips as a child?
upinak on September 11, 2009 at 12:42 PM
Liberals do. They see them as being oppressed, and they just need to lash out. I mean, they never get to see their momma’s face, and if a woman gets out of line, you get to stone her or rape her. So it’s a lot like ACORN.
kirkill on September 11, 2009 at 12:42 PM
He was notified of the first attack during that period, not of the “attacks.” You’d rather he jump up and run around like a little “schoogirl?” Just because that’s what the filthy liar in the White House now would do, it isn’t the right course when you are a leader not the affirmative action quota filler of the current regime.
highhopes on September 11, 2009 at 12:42 PM
You embody Archie Bunker/Fidel Castro. Love it!
NathanG on September 11, 2009 at 12:42 PM
Heh.
NathanG on September 11, 2009 at 12:43 PM
simplesemen shows how ignorant the Left is regarding WH protocol.
Apparently he wanted President Bush to run screaming from the room.
What he fails to comprehend is that perhaps when the aide whispered into the President’s ear, he informed him that Air Force One was preparing to take him to a secret location, that airspace had to be cleared for take off, and that it would be several minutes before they can depart.
Then the President calmly continued reading as he did not want to frighten the children.
You’re a moron, simplesemen.
atheling on September 11, 2009 at 12:43 PM
Of all days to be a complete dickhead.
VegasRick on September 11, 2009 at 12:43 PM
I fully agree on you being banned. Not only b/c I dislike libs and dislike you, but because you do two other things: you live and you breathe.
Go do those elsewhere, and may you do them for many more years to come. But, just not around us, okay?
Liam on September 11, 2009 at 12:44 PM
‘catastrophe tested’ is fine and dandy. But the problem is that the government now makes up ‘catastrophes’ so that they can be the hero.
I’d much prefer a competent leader who can take a great situation and make it better for everyone than someone who can clean up a mess. It takes a mess to have someone to clean it up. I’d rather not have the mess.
If you want to elect Rudy because he cleans up messes well, there may not be a mess to clean up unless it is manufactured (ie bank, auto bailout. health care ‘crisis’, environmental ‘crisis’).
I want someone to say we are great and we are going to be better. The current administration starts with we are bad and need to be punished. . . from there, who knows where we will go.
Rudy is great for NY. I like Rudy personally. I agree with a lot of his ideas. But he’d make as bad a president as Obama (ie. . . use the office as a bludgeon against critics – no place for that in a free society).
ThackerAgency on September 11, 2009 at 12:44 PM
Oh and BTW. No matter wtf Bush was reading. Do you think it would have been wise for the the POTUS to get up in the middle of a group of children, scare the living hell out of them as well as the Parents?
You are an idiot. Bush at least had sense enough to be calm in a crowd.
upinak on September 11, 2009 at 12:44 PM
W
Ohhh – how convenient! Bonus points for the Decider finding out how it ended up with the pet goat!
simplesimon on September 11, 2009 at 12:45 PM
I think he’s saying it’s a required service next year to vote these idiots out.
Enoxo on September 11, 2009 at 12:45 PM
Maverick Muse– This was on RedState yesterday:
LASue on September 11, 2009 at 12:45 PM
I for one am glad the Left wing has been so openly treasonous in the last eight years.
Like a stupid facebook post that haunts a kid for life, many of the Bush deranged Leftists — the ones who some day grow up — will come to regret acting like traitors so openly, and for so long.
jeff_from_mpls on September 11, 2009 at 12:46 PM
Settle down, race fan! Have a few freedom fries – you’ll feel better.
simplesimon on September 11, 2009 at 12:47 PM
Please, Hot Air, the banhammer. It’s time we get rid if this piece of subhuman excrement.
atheling on September 11, 2009 at 12:47 PM
Any pedagogue was repulsed by Obama’s threatening manner with the children, demanding of them to immediately state what miracle each child would achieve as an adult. That was not inspirational given age appropriate mental abilities of children confronted with Obama’s demand to stipulate how they will out perform Einstein when they grow up.
maverick muse on September 11, 2009 at 12:47 PM
Thanx Ed for puting this out there. I remember what RUdy did for this Country and I hope other will too. If I was a New Yorker Rudy would have my vote.
HotAirExpert on September 11, 2009 at 12:47 PM
I propose that rape victims be required to perform a day of service on the anniversary of their assault. I for one would sign up to have one of the rape victims tidy up my front yard.
/sarc.
jeff_from_mpls on September 11, 2009 at 12:47 PM
Pweese, pweese…
simplesimon on September 11, 2009 at 12:48 PM
Good. I thought it was rather sickening how the desperately the Dems wanted to give themselves some kind of credibility on national security. Trying to name the holiday after someone who couldn’t even tell the neighbors a young woman was drowning is something so stupidly insensitive, only a jackass could dream it up.
alliebobbitt on September 11, 2009 at 12:48 PM
gotcha.. coffee isn’t hitting the veins yet.
upinak on September 11, 2009 at 12:48 PM
Yeah! Race fans!
NathanG on September 11, 2009 at 12:48 PM
/Just quit feeding trolls.
maverick muse on September 11, 2009 at 12:48 PM
I’m not sure things were that clear at that very minute but the staffers were definitely monitoring what was going on and those 7 minutes were not squandered. Besides liberal trolls like simplesimon attack GWB for those 7 minutes while not pointing out that Clinton’s 8 YEARS were the primary cause of the 9/11/01 atrocities. Had Clinton, Albright, Reno, Gorelick, et al taken the threat of terrorism seriously, the 9/11/01 attacks would not have happened.
highhopes on September 11, 2009 at 12:48 PM
A perfect example of why incest is illegal.
atheling on September 11, 2009 at 12:49 PM
Obama has told us that his job as president is to make sure that Islam is not ill spoken of. Of a piece with that is his decision to make 9/11 not a day of Remembrance for our country but a day of service to the state. As long as he distracts us from what happened on 9/11, Islam is safe because nobody will point a finger and say ‘Muslims did this.’ 9/11 is just another day to advance his statist agenda because he and his clique of terrorist friends all believe that America deserved it. So, if we deserved it, no reason to look at who did it and their source of justification. He insults us all.
SilentWatcher on September 11, 2009 at 12:49 PM
LET’S ROLL!
TXUS on September 11, 2009 at 12:49 PM
jeff_from_mpls on September 11, 2009 at 12:47 PM
Leftist liberalism at its finest./
maverick muse on September 11, 2009 at 12:50 PM
Better example – A Sarah Palin rally. Some of those ‘Real Americans’ are ssscary!
simplesimon on September 11, 2009 at 12:50 PM
Are you like 12 or something, or are you just one of those pink haired anarchists phoning it in from a ratty Starbucks in Seattle?
NathanG on September 11, 2009 at 12:50 PM
Oh yes they were clear. There are contingency plans for emergencies such as these. I can assure you that they followed those plans.
atheling on September 11, 2009 at 12:50 PM
If another 9/11 happens, we won’t have to worry about the President being in the middle of reading to schoolchildren and trying to remain calm so as not to frighten them. He’ll be in the middle of another badly written and badly delivered partisan campaign speech trying to frighten the country about evil doctors and lying former Governors.
rockmom on September 11, 2009 at 12:50 PM
You wouldn’t survive a Rally… especially in Alaska.
upinak on September 11, 2009 at 12:51 PM
simplesemen:
Do you call your mother “Mom”, or “Sis”? Must be confusing for you.
atheling on September 11, 2009 at 12:51 PM
No, better yet, since no lib has ever answered this: What should Bush have done? Should he have jumped up and run from the classroom, to scare all those children? You’d have nailed him on that, right?
You libs get people going and coming; there’s no sense about you, no compassion in a real way. You bitched he landed Air Force One at a secret location instead of going to DC, which was the worst place in the world for the President to be when the country was under attack. If 9/11 happened under Clinton, the last place I’d want Clinton was DC, and you know what I think of Dems.
You libs get people going and coming, being insane like Rosanne Conner in her old TV show. You feel a disturbed need to feel somehow ‘right’ no matter what. Had Bush gone to DC that morning, you’d be bitching about that for his putting the national leadership in danger.
The saddest thing about you libs being so messed up is that you don’t know you’re messed up and to its degree.
Hell is going to come as quite a shock to you.
Liam on September 11, 2009 at 12:51 PM
thomasaur on September 11, 2009 at 12:51 PM
simplesimon on September 11, 2009 at 12:48 PM
Don’t you have a fluffy unicorn to go pet or something? I hear Van Jones is looking for a few good communists.
kirkill on September 11, 2009 at 12:52 PM
I wasnt talking about his speech to the kids..i was speaking in generalities. But after reading his comment on the day of 9/11, I see his concern wasnt for the children losing their mothers and fathers, but on the poor children who grew up to commit these acts.
becki51758 on September 11, 2009 at 12:52 PM
Touche. A rat? A donkey? A snake?
atheling on September 11, 2009 at 12:52 PM
Yes, if only President Bush could have “recalibrated” his reaction. It’s truly a shame the man held his composure in front of young kids.
You dolt.
atlgal on September 11, 2009 at 12:53 PM
Rudy was a source of inspiration that day. He was in charge and thank God he was Mayor at the time.
Another great New Yorker, Firefighter Tommy Dunn was on the job that day too. His story from dispatch to the base of Tower 2 is shared here.
FireBlogger on September 11, 2009 at 12:53 PM
Just as the former male cheerleader continued with his earnest reading of My Pet Goat, his saga continued as well.
In brief:
Cheerleader claims an ‘imminent threat’ of WMDs. Cheerleader invades wrong country. Bad guys that carried out 9-11 get away. $1 Trillion squandered. Here we are 8 years later. The end.
simplesimon on September 11, 2009 at 12:53 PM
Back to Rudy, please. Not surprising that the liberal troll wants us not to talk about the real hero of 9/11.
This is only clip of a politician that I care to see today.
rockmom on September 11, 2009 at 12:53 PM
He’d end up with a finger bitten off, then an ear, then his nose…..
While he’s at it, maybe he should attend a NASCAR race with his Bush=Hitler shirt and see how long it takes before they stick their foot up his ass.
NathanG on September 11, 2009 at 12:54 PM
I am also a product of the IL public school system. Your statement is closer to the truth than what others may think. They may think you are kidding, but I know what you are say’n.
jbh45 on September 11, 2009 at 12:54 PM
If Bastard Clinton had targeted America’s enemies instead of the Branch Davidians, bin Laden would have burned despite the “swingset spotted by satellite imagery” beside his hide-out that “excused” procrastinating POTUS “permission” to take him out, rather than burning to death all those children and parents outside of Waco, TX.
maverick muse on September 11, 2009 at 12:54 PM
What’s convenient? Are you some kind of Truther who thinks Bush scheduled the reading so he would look surprised? You probably are that sick, since you think being a male cheerleader means you’re gay.
I would be more inclined to believe a man who smokes crack cocaine with a gigolo in a limo and marries Mandingo Michelle is gay. But that’s just me. ;)
alliebobbitt on September 11, 2009 at 12:54 PM
Jesus tap dancing Christ, is every 9/11 thread today going to turn into a comment trainwreck?
MadisonConservative on September 11, 2009 at 12:55 PM
Which he’ll interrupt only long enough to assure the terrorists that America only wants to be their friend and we hold no ill will that they’ve killed Americans. It’s the way the filthy liar in the White House rolls.
highhopes on September 11, 2009 at 12:55 PM
Obama just doesn’t see what happened on 9/11 as an act of war, as another attack in the long line of Islamic attacks on the West. He says, foolishly, on 9/11, we’re all New Yorkers. No. It’s not a New York problem. It’s an AMERICAN problem. When Islamic terrorists slaughtered in New York and Pennsylvania and DC, they struck at the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! That’s what Obama doesn’t want to say. That’s what he doesn’t want us to get. New York has no authority to respond to the 9/11 attack; the USA does, and we did. Obama’s thing is we should not have killed the Muslims who were planning to kill more of us. No harm must come to them no matter what they do to us. That’s why he’s letting them out of Guantanamo, giving them our constitutional rights on the battlefield, and taking other steps to protect Muslim lives at the cost of American ones.
SilentWatcher on September 11, 2009 at 12:55 PM
Koch had grit and wouldn’t have folded. Further back LaGuardia likely would have been up to the task–one can argue whether Fiorello was a Republican in the modern sense (as some do with Rudy). However, with all of them there is something about their NYC upbringing that they can draw on in tough times.
dedalus on September 11, 2009 at 12:55 PM
What should Bush have done? Should he have jumped up and run from the classroom, to scare all those children? You’d have nailed him on that, right?
You libs get people going and coming; there’s no common sense about you, no compassion in a real way. You bitched Air Force One landed at a secret location instead of going to DC, which was the worst place in the world for the President to be when the country was under attack. If 9/11 happened under Clinton, the last place I’d want Clinton was DC, and you know what I think of Dems.
You libs get people going and coming, being insane like Rosanne on her old TV show. You feel a disturbed need to feel somehow ‘right’ no matter what. Had Bush gone to DC that morning, you’d be bitching about that for his putting the national leadership in danger.
The saddest thing about you libs being so messed up is that you don’t know you’re messed up and to its degree.
Hell is going to come as quite a shock to you.
Liam on September 11, 2009 at 12:55 PM
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