The American Spectator

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Rick Hertzberg of The New Yorker described Giuliani as "exactly the leader the city needed. His demeanor -- calm, frank, patient, tender, egoless, competent -- was, as carried to the city and the world through the intimacy of television, profoundly reassuring."

br> Behind the scenes, Giuliani was even more impressive: br>

By noon, the mayor, assuming the role of a wartime leader, had gathered not only the police and fire commissioners, but also representatives of all of the city's emergency agencies, at the Police Academy on 20th Street, which served as makeshift command center. There, Giuliani replicated the crisp tenor of his [daily] 8 a.m. meetings. Congressman Jerrold Nadler, usually a critic, "was amazed at the efficiency of the meeting.... It was magnificent really."

br> "Who knew that Rudy was Churchill?" asked New York magazine. Well, Giuliani, for one. He had read the biographies and long admired Britain's savior.

Giuliani now runs Giuliani Partners, a highly successful consulting firm, amassing money and experience for an obvious run at the presidency in 2008. The U.S. Army recently credited his policing techniques as helping in the capture of Saddam Hussein. He remains wildly popular throughout the country, an electrifying speaker, and -- in the words of Oprah Winfrey -- "America's Mayor." Whether his liberal views on abortion and gay marriage can clear the hurdle of conservative primary voters remains to be seen.

Still, it does not seem inappropriate to say that, whatever the future may hold for Giuliani and the country, he will probably never face a more daunting task than he did in 1994 when he took over a morally and financially bankrupt New York City. In every toe-to-toe battle with mob-controlled unions, in every spit-fight with rapacious public employees, in every harrowing confrontation with racial arsonists, Fred Siegel has recounted the story's grim and gory details.

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