.....Full transcript here. I didn't get to see it, I was watching my Titans, which I will get to later...
Everyone seems to be talking about this speech this morning. At least five people were discussing it in the break room when I came in.
Typical comment-"What an amazing speech. Why isn't he running? I'd vote for him after that."
I heard little if any negative comments, even from the normally liberal voices. It's like 9/12 all over again, where everyone got behind New York and Washington, when Giuliani put partisan politics aside and led his city (and the country as well) out of the smoking pile of rubble in downtown Manhattan. Giuliani has rightfully gained most Americans trust as a man who came through when the sh*t hit the fan. There are a few parts from this speech that deserve to be highlighted, because Giuliani was able to pinpoint what I feel many Independents are thinking right now in terms of this election.
For instance-
"I don't believe we're right about everything and Democrats are wrong about everything.
Neither party has a monopoly on virtue.
But I do believe that there are times in our history when our ideas are more necessary and important for what we are facing.
There are times when leadership is the most important."
That resonates quite well with people like myself who are not Republicans, yet feel that this election is about more than the standard domestic issues. Rudy then proceeded to outline the problem os Islamic terrorism in a way that the Democrats have completely avoided.
"Terrorism did not start on September 11, 2001. It had been festering for many years.
And the world had created a response to it that allowed it to succeed. The attack on the Israeli team at the Munich Olympics was in 1972. And the pattern had already begun.
The three surviving terrorists were arrested and within two months released by the German government.
Action like this became the rule, not the exception.
Terrorists came to learn they could attack and often not face consequences.
In 1985, terrorists attacked the Achille Lauro and murdered an American citizen who was in a wheelchair, Leon Klinghoffer.
They marked him for murder solely because he was Jewish.
Some of those terrorist were released and some of the remaining terrorists allowed to escape by the Italian government because of fear of reprisals.
So terrorists learned they could intimidate the world community and too often the response, particularly in Europe, was "accommodation, appeasement and compromise."
And worse the terrorists also learned that their cause would be taken more seriously, almost in direct proportion to the barbarity of the attack.
Terrorist acts became a ticket to the international bargaining table.
How else to explain Yasser Arafat winning the Nobel Peace Prize when he was supporting a terrorist plague in the Middle East that undermined any chance of peace?"
Rudy invoked the Israeli-Palestine issue a few times, most notably when speaking about the lack of consistency John Kerry has displayed-
"John Kerry has made it the rule to change his position, rather than the exception. In October, 2003, he told an Arab-American Institute in Detroit that a security barrier separating Israel from the Palestinian Territories was a "barrier to peace."
A few months later, he took exactly the opposite position. In an interview with the Jerusalem Post he said, "Israel's security fence is a legitimate act of self defense."
The contrasts are dramatic. They involve very different views of how to deal with terrorism.
President Bush will make certain that we are combatting terrorism at the source, beyond our shores, so we can reduce the risk of having to confront it in the streets of New York.
John Kerry's record of inconsistent positions on combatting terrorism gives us no confidence he'll pursue such a determined course."
Rudy also touched on the main issue in regards to the threats facing our nation, and that is the lack of accountability in the majority of the Middle Eastern regimes. This is something I waited to hear at the democrat convention, but it never came.
"President Bush has also focused on the correct long-term answer for the violence and hatred emerging from the Middle East. The hatred and anger in the Middle East arises from the lack of accountable governments.
Rather than trying to grant more freedom, create more income, improve education and basic health care, these governments deflect their own failures by pointing to America and Israel and other external scapegoats.
But blaming these scapegoats does not improve the life of a single person in the Arab world. It does not relieve the plight of even one woman in Iran.
It does not give a decent living to a single soul in Syria. It certainly does not stop the slaughter of African Christians in the Sudan.
The changes necessary in the Middle East involve encouraging accountable, lawful governments that can be role models.
This has also been an important part of the Bush Doctrine and the President's vision for the future.
Have faith in the power of freedom."
I'm not sure what Kerry could say to counter this at this point. Words like this spell out in detail why Bush has made the right choices in responding to the attacks on America. Kerry had his oppurtunity at the DNC to spell out what he would do, and all I can remember from that was something about extra special ops guys. Not exactly inspiring ideas.
Great speech from Rudy, I bet he'll be on the radar for 2008....
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