Rudy's Arrival

Emmett Tyrrell seems to like his chances. So do I.

Well, one knows a politician by the company he keeps, and Mr. Giuliani has around him the financial people who created the libertarian-conservative Manhattan Institute. He relied heavily on the Institute's policies while governing New York. He will rely on libertarian-conservative policymakers in his race for the White House and once there.

One also knows a political leader by the action he takes. As mayor, Mr. Giuliani took on the nanny state that city government had become, reducing the dependency that had 1 in 7 New Yorkers living off government support. As for New York's huge welfare rolls, he more than halved them and had more than 100,000 welfare recipients finding work annually by 1999. He cleaned up the crime-ridden streets, cutting crime by 64 percent and murder by 67 percent. By cutting spending and taxes, he turned an economic basket case into an economic marvel. In eight years, he reduced or extinguished 23 taxes. Every year he was in office, New York City's economy grew faster than the nation's.

Read it all.

More from Mona Charen.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin weighs in, noting some other relatively favorable NRO coverage.