Rudolph William Louis Giuliani (Rudy Giuliani) was born in 1944 in Brooklyn, New York. He is the grandson of immigrants from Italy. A Roman Catholic, Giuliani attended parochial schools in New York City and considered becoming a priest before deciding upon law as a career. He graduated from Manhattan College and New York University School of Law.
Giuliani began his law career as a clerk in 1968 for a U.S. District Judge in New York. By 1973 he was a U.S. Attorney. He went on to serve in the U.S. Attorney General’s office during the Reagan Administration. In 1989 he gained the GOP nomination for Mayor of New York but lost the election. He became mayor in 1993 and held that office for two terms, until the end of 2001. In 2000 he announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat in New York being vacated by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He withdrew from that race when he was diagnosed with cancer.
Guiliani’s position as mayor of New York after the September 2001 terrorist attack brought him praise, criticism, and a great deal of public attention. TIME magazine made him “Man of the Year” for his work overseeing the rescue efforts at the World trade Center. Queen Elizabeth II knighted him. But New York City’s Firefighter’s Union has criticized his handling of the recovery efforts and at one point even considered excluding him from a presidential forum.
Abortion and Stem Cell Research
Giuliani has been consistently pro-choice in his positions on abortion. But his stance has also consistently emphasized alternatives to abortion, like adoption. And he has promised conservatives in the GOP that he will appoint conservative judges to the federal bench. He has said that stem cell research involving human embryos is acceptable, but should be limited.
Education
As a product of New York City’s parochial schools himself, Giuliani described NYC’s public schools as “dysfunctional.” He has been a supporter in the past of vouchers to help parents pay private school tuition. He has also advocated privatizing public schools that do not meet academic standards.
Health Care
Giuliani has said that he wants to avoid “socialized” medicine and that he thinks America’s health care problems need private solutions. He has suggested health care vouchers that could fund medical care for the poor and the uninsured. And he has proposed a tax incentive for health care savings plans.
Immigration
Giuliani supports a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. He attributes the reduction of crime in NYC during his tenure as mayor in part to making the city a sanctuary city. Giuliani feels that if children of undocumented immigrants are in school instead of on the streets, everyone is better off. He advocates reforms that would provide identification documents to all immigrants, legal or not, so that they could be tracked to determine when they leave the country.
Taxes and Social Security
Giuliani claims to have reduced taxes in New York City by seven percent during his two terms as mayor. He campaigns on the promise of lower taxes and reduced government spending. Giuliani sees lower corporate taxes as a way to attract business. He supports the use of private accounts to allow individual taxpayers to manage their social security funds. Giuliani feels that the Bush Administration’s tax cuts should be extended and that the estate tax should be repealed. He opposes the “Fair Tax,” a proposal that would eliminate income tax and replace it with a large federal sales tax.
Gay Marriage
Giuliani opposes a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. He supports the use of civil unions to formalize gay partnerships but is not in favor of gay marriage.
The Iraq War
Giuliani has generally supported the war in Iraq. He has called Democratic efforts to set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq “fundamentally irresponsible.”
Conclusion
As a divorced Roman Catholic from New York City and a former Democrat, Giuliani faces a considerable challenge in attracting conservative voters from the traditionally Republican rural South. His somewhat liberal positions on abortion and gay rights will not help him. But Giuliani’s biggest asset, his personal charisma, may carry him through the election.
Rudy Giuliani's Official Site: www.joinrudy2008.com/
