Rudy carried his "broken windows" theory to the extreme.
The irony being there wasn't a
broken window to fix in the first place. Giuliani had that totalitarian nanny state coupled with former Federal prosecutor thing going on. While that worked for much of what was wrong, crime, subway graffiti, overall filth and grime and, yes, real broken windows, he just never seemed to know when to stop. Giuliani as President would be another Nixon. He'd get wrapped up in the minutiae and lose sight of the big picture. For all the knocking/griping/mocking/laughing at/being pissed off at of Obama we do, there is one thing Obama does get: The Big Picture. And that is a really bad thing for us.
I think Rudy took the 'I'm in charge' mantra a little too far. But after Dinkins, Giuliani was a breath of fresh air. He was leaving the mayorship before 9/11 (which happened to be a mayoral primary voting day; the only election where I've voted twice), as he had served two consecutive terms, which was a city ordinance/law/whatever that a person could not be mayor three consecutive terms. So Giuliani sort of anointed Bloomberg, who later changes the two-term in a row rule so he could run - and win - a third term. One reason for the hands off treatment of the #OWS shantytown is that Bloomberg, besides being an elite nanny state @sshole, is not running again and he doesn't want his legacy to be 'white boy' riots. The fact that Giuliani picked Bloomberg will make me always question his judgement, not just those sidewalk barricades that made me go WTF?
