Rudolph Giuliani knows what it takes to lead our country, at least as far as the emotive strength in the midst of an enormous uncharted crisis. He stood candidly, without the pretense that he was unaffected. He felt the same pain as anyone who lost people in the attacks. He lost his spiritual advisor--a priest, as well as others.

Leading New York is akin to leading a blue whale. At a certain point, the whale chooses its own route. The mayor's job, in part, is about convincing the whale to go somewhere.
Giuliani gained an unusual credibility about leadership ideas during and since the attacks. He had already proven himself as something more capable than LA's mayor as someone who could break out out mediocrity, and more visionary than Chicago's mayor as someone not content with merely maintaining. Giuliani raised the bar, and then jumped it well before September 11 catapulted him into new territory.

Giuliani, like Bush, like any American leader, never trained or studied for what response was wisest during a national-level attack. They don't cover this in "how to be a leader" courses. Yet, like Bush, he improvised as best he knew and we saw what muster he could produce. Though almost out of office on September 11, he demonstrated he was not the lame duck a lesser man might've been.

My trouble with a Giuliani-penned book is not in what he has to say about macro-leadership. He has the right stuff. But part of leadership is in the microleadership.
His personal life publically flailed before our eyes. Granted, his struggle against prostrate cancer is impressive, and I hope in the long run, it is behind him. But his marital failure is scandalous. Bill Clinton's scandal was horrible, but Clinton was ashamed of himself as noted by his Adam and Eve like denials. Giuliani, however, didn't seem to have the same issues. I suspect he's not proud of himself, but, in turn, he seems to not be particularly penitent.

I must recomend this book. It brings insight into a clearly complicated man. He's not the perfect leader, but, despite his personal failures and struggles, he still was a keystone in the rebuilding of America's confidence.


Anthony Trendl

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