America's mayor rouses GOP delegates

NEW YORK, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Ex-New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani received a hero's welcome Monday at the GOP convention lauding his success in America's second toughest job.

Giuliani, who in 1993 became the first Republican elected mayor of New York City in more than a generation, demonstrated that a metropolis thought by many to be ungovernable could, in fact, be governed. However, he was tested the most as al-Qaida terrorists flew two airplanes into the World Trade Center Sept. 11, 2001.

Recalling the dark day when the terrorist attack on lower Manhattan paralyzed the city and nearly took the life of the former mayor and key members of his staff, Giuliani told the delegates he recalled grabbing the arm of former city Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and saying, "Thank God George Bush is president."

"Terrorism didn't start on Sept. 11, 2001," Giuliani said, recalling the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics and the fact that the surviving terrorists were set free by the German government just months after they were arrested.

"In times of danger, as we are now in, Americans should put leadership at the core of their decision," Giuliani said. "There are many qualities that make a great leader but having strong beliefs, being able to stick with them through popular and unpopular times, is the most important characteristic of a great leader," he said, comparing Bush to Winston Churchill and Ronald Reagan.