Rudy At His Best

Hillary can cry all she wants to, but this is the type of unscripted moment that makes one look truly presidential:


It's moments like these that remind me of where I was on 9/11 and why I strongly support Rudy for president. I was in DC at the time, starting my junior year of college. Back in those days, I had the luxury of staying up at all hours of the night and sleeping in the next day, so since I had a 10:00 am class, I decided to sleep in, when I got a call around 9:00 am from a friend telling me that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I immediately turned on the news to see what happened, and one of the first scenes I saw was of Mayor Giuliani at Ground Zero, taking immediate control of the situation. I remember seeing him looking out for one of his aides and scolding him for not wearing his mask, but if I recall correctly, the Mayor didn't seem to keep his mask on as much given that he had to take command. Moments later, NBC turned to its Pentagon correspondent, who immediately informed them about a loud "boom" he heard outside and that the complex was being evacuated. Classes hadn't been cancelled yet, so I walked to my class (which was a religion course taught by a wonderful DeSales-Oblate), and before our professor arrived, all of us were talking about the rumors we heard going on in DC: "they bombed the Capitol building," "a bomb was found at the Mall," etc. Our professor always started class with a short prayer, but the prayer that day lasted at least 10 minutes, which certainly helped and calmed us, after which we discussed the day's events. We received word that classes were cancelled a short time later, and as I walked back to my dorm, I could see the smoke billowing from the Pentagon, which was just a few short miles away. I spent the rest of the day, as most people, watching the news and seeing Mayor Giuliani lead us all through the crisis. The next few weeks, we saw the Mayor go through the struggle of attending countless funerals, hugging the loved ones of 9/11 victims, and helping this nation heal. This video certainly brought me back to those days, showcasing Rudy's leadership, kindness and warmth.

A quick note about the protester: From those at the podium, it appeared he was protesting the war, when he was in fact a pro-life protester. As a pro-lifer who has participated in the March for Life, I was truly disgusted by this display. When the mother of a fallen soldier takes the stage to speak about her son, who sacrificed his life for our country, you do not heckle her about Rudy's position on abortion. I'm not saying that pro-lifers shouldn't exercise their First Amendment rights, but this was clearly neither the time nor the place for such a demonstration. Also, as a retort to the protester on Rudy's views, here's my take on the issue.