Rudy & the Heroic Families of our Lost

Ed Morrissey posted this moving video over at his place, remarking:

[Rudy Giuliani] asks if any of the family would like to come to the podium and tell their stories, and as one might imagine, it overshadowed everything else Rudy had to say. However, the words of these parents are quite stirring, even if one Gold Star mother gets interrupted by a protestor. Check out Rudy’s reaction:

The Mayor, and the proud, admirable mother react with perfect dignity.

It is easy to forget, particularly if you did not live in New York in the months following 9/11, that Rudy Giuliani went to the wakes or funerals of nearly every lost cop and firefighter in the city, sometimes going from one funeral to the next in a single day. He even walked a bride down the aisle, after she’d lost her firefighter father and brother. He was tremendous and authentic, and he showed courage, commitment and leadership.

I know some folks on the right are forgetting about Rudy because he’s not much in the news, and some are writing him off because he’s not a good enough Christian for them, and some are fixated in the fact that he has dared to goof around in drag (which I thought was very funny, and which demonstrates to me that he has not been focusing on the White House his whole career).

Some may have forgotten how strong, smart and commanding Rudy Giuliani is, but I haven’t forgotten. I look at Thompson and I like some of what I see, but also dislike some of what I see. I think Fred does a good job of articulating the general tenor of much of the GOP, but I don’t know how well he can actually govern. Cantankerousness may be fun, but a president needs to be more than an embodiment of a mood.

And the truth is, I have no idea how he, or Romney, or Huckabee would turn around an economy, resolve a social problem or – God forbid – deal with a nation under attack and hurting.

I know those things about Rudy, because, frankly – he’s done them! I lived and worked in NYC when it seemed lawless, economically distressed and ungovernable; I saw the man do the things that needed doing, despite the press misrepresenting him and the left assailing him and calling him a “fascist.”

Rudy is a “known entity” to me, as opposed to the rest of the GOP stable – they may be good men, but I don’t know what they’d do under legislative fire, under public fire or under real fire – I don’t know how they’d handle it.

I do know how Rudy would handle those things. I don’t have to guess or hope. I know. He frankly has the most fleshed-out resume.

And yes, I trust him to appoint judges to the SCOTUS who would interpret the constitution strictly, because as a prosecutor Rudy proved himself to be a man who followed the law, who respected the law too much to dance with it or around it.

The other day, I asked readers to check their guts about who they thought could best be trusted with the power and influence of the most important, most powerful job in the world.

My own gut told me Romney wasn’t as bad as I was inclined to think, and that Fred was still a huge question mark.

I don’t want to vote for a question mark, not these days.

I’m still not fully decided. It’s too early to be decided, and I have no intention of doing so, yet. But after watching that tape, and thinking back to what I, as a New Yorker, know about Rudy Giuliani and his leadership abilities, I definitely lean Rudyward.