I hope everyone has read the New York piece that bethie noted elsewhere...
http://nymag.com/news/features/28517/
Anyone honest will acknowledge that Giuliani enters this picture only because of 9/11. Who knows even the name of the Mayor of Los Angeles or Chicago or Dallas or Seattle presently, not to mention six years ago?
Anyone honest will acknowledge that 9/11 demonstrated that Giuliani managed a civic emergency as well as any other examples we can think of and far better than most we can think of.
But from where does the ubiquitous adjective "heroic" come? And does it make any sense at all?
We don't normally apply the term "heroic" to demonstrations of competence, even in large emergencies, unless there is also some significant courage in the face of personal risk involved. That doesn't apply here. Or if it does, it applies to thousands working at the scene, many at far more personal risk than the mayor. Brownie, of Fema fame, isn't castigated for lack of heroism, just a lack of competence.
Giuliani's response at the time was contrasted with that of Bush, favorably for Giuliani and unfavorably for Bush. Dems pushed that equation, of course, and so did the media for valid reasons (competence IS important in civic leaders) and arguably less valid reasons (dems - political advantage, media - gripping narrative/viewers/ad dollars).
I think it is this last bit, the gripping narrative, that generated the "heroic" notion for a lot of Americans. Bush tried to get some of it himself (standing on the pile of rubble and dead people rather like it was a mastodon he'd just brought down single-handedly, bellowing into a bullhorn and almost thumping his chest with the "we'll get them" stuff). If the Giuliani campaign continues, we'll be watching over and over any footage of Rudy striding and pushing away dust and debris as if his intention alone might split the Red Sea.
This is all visceral stuff. It's not terribly rational at all. It's deeply tied in with American nationalism. Each year, about the same number of people die in their bathtubs as died on that day.
The blow was to national ego. And without question, that blow was and is felt more deeply by those Americans within whom serious and militant nationalism flows vigorously.
One can make a sensible argument that almost everything the Bush administration has done since then has been an attempt to salve that wound...to repair the damaged nationalist pride. And one can sensibly argue that almost everything they've attempted has failed, and made the wound and the emasculation even worse.
What a time, for those serious American nationalist types to pray for a hero of the authoritarian and militarist sort. The solution for such folks is quite obvious... get bigger weapons and hit harder and really clear out the internal defeatist riff-raff. America on top. Whatever it takes. Or it isn't America, just a limp-dicked place like France.
