Will Giuliani's Handling of 9-11 Damage His Presidential Chances?

Rudy Giuliani's main claim to fame-and a mainstay of his presidential campaign-is the way he took charge of New York City's response to the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Giuliani's hands-on management style and his constant public presence earned him the title of "America's Mayor" and catapulted him into a prominent position to make a run for the Republican presidential nomination for the 2008 election. Despite his personal marital problems and non-conservative stands on such issues as abortion and gay rights, the former New York City mayor seemed in a strong position to claim the nomination.

Questions are being raised, however, about the nature of his 9-11 leadership. A New York Times article claims that Giuliani, in his desire to show how quickly New York City could recover from the attack, effectively limited the work of federal agencies and, in the process, may have contributed to the health problems now being experienced by cleanup workers at Ground Zero. According to David Newman, an industrial hygienist with the New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health, a labor group, "The city ran a generally slipshod, haphazard, uncoordinated, unfocused response to environmental concerns."

One major complaint about the city's handling of the cleanup is that workers were not encouraged as strongly as they should been to follow federal regulations to wear respirators while working at the site. According to the Osterley Times, "City officials and a range of medical experts are now convinced that the dust and toxic materials in the air around the site were a menace." According to Osterley, more than 2,000 New York City firefighters have been treated for serious breathing problems and 70% of nearly 10.000 recovery workers examined at Mount Sinai Medical Center have trouble breathing.