(For a presidential race)
Here is how I envision it: Rudy on a ten meter high dive platform, an empty swimming pool below him, me cheering him on to jump.
As a mayor, he was effective, as a president, he'd make a good mayor of New York.
His known position on guns (granted, he was dealing with a complex urban environment) is a complete non starter for me. If he adjusted this, I may see him in a more favorable light.
His authoritarian approach tells me he will continue the absurdity that is "The War On Drugs," and the needless overcrowding of prisons, etc.
He's a New Yawker. That's a minus for me, on the national scene. Within the context of New York and the Tri State area, it's a plus.
Anyone recall
John Lindsay? He turned down RFK's Senate seat to remain Mayor of New York. I see Rudy as being similarly enamored of New York as "the center of the universe."
His record as a DA/prosecutor is a plus.
I was around the greater New York Metro area when he and Donna Hanover's marriage broke up very publicly. I don't care how you slice it, it was ugly, though I am not sure if it was Rudy the attention whore, or Rudy under a microscope of the New York Media as mayor. Or both. It seems to me that classy people try to keep their private affairs private. It's a damned shame his marriage did not work out, but many marriages suffer under the strains of ambition and success writ large. Unlike what some people seem to be doing in the media wars, I don't hold his divorces against him (save his handling of them) since it's a common modern affliction.
I will guess he'd be for a strong defense, but I don't think he has a clue what that means.
I don't see him as very appealing.
DR
!