John Avlon: “Giuliani has always been a mix of sunshine and shadow. He was a young man who had wanted to join the priesthood but chose to be a prosecutor instead, in part because he knew that he was too hot-blooded to keep his vows. In city hall, there was a constant struggle between the better angels of his nature and the darker impulses of his soul: the instinct to respond to a mosquito with a howitzer, the fact that he was more content to be feared than loved. Earlier this month, Rudy was suddenly hospitalized with pneumonia, sinking into a coma before recovering.”
“This urgent reminder of his mortality prompted me to reflect on the arc of his life. I had a front-row seat to this daily wrestling match as a 27-year-old chief speechwriter in his second term. I learned a lot from him—and the lessons of his life, both positive and negative, should not be lost.”
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