I lived in NYC from late 1983 to 12/2005, myself.

For the record, I believe Rudy G. is a complete fraud.

Did Rudy turnaround NYC on crime? The same thing happened in other cities, such as Washington, D.C., without resort to Giuliani thug tactics. It was demographics, as much as anything else.

America's mayor? Terrorism experience? Please, the guy has bullhorn experience. It qualifies him to tell lies on FAUX with the likes of O'Liely and Hannity.

He's just another GOP crook, and his fascist tendencies are disturbing, to say the least.

I've been waiting for someone to remember this, but you've got to go further and provide some context. Rudy Giuliani led a police riot outside of City Hall in New York City in protest against Mayor David Dinkins. I happened to be in downtown New York that day and I witnessed it, and I can tell you it was very frightening. The whole story really needs to be told again.

Awe, Rudy said a bad word. But seriously, I doubt it will be the end of him. Might even help him look like a little more of a tough guy, although AJ's observations (above) about hizzoner's fashion sense are pretty right on. It's probably a wash in that sense.

That police riot does warrant more attention though. I had all but forgotten about that but it was what really put legs under Rudy's first mayoral campaign and it really was disgraceful. What they were protesting BTW, was the creation of a civilian review board for the police department; one of Dinkins' efforts to try and reign in corruption, brutality and racism that were rampant in in the NYPD at the time. Of course in Giuliani's defense, he honestly did believe the review board was such a bad idea that he eliminated it altogether it once in office... just kidding.

It was Giuliani's first police commissioner, William Bratton who in fact completed the remarkable transformation of the NYPD into the effective and professional organization it is today. Still has its problems of course but OMG. Community Policing initiatives that began in the Dinkins administration were an important part of that turn-around and in 2001, Giuliani actually turned over all prosecution of police misconduct to the civilian review board.

As for Bratton, Giuliani finally fired him for getting too much (rightful) credit from the press for bringing down the crime rate in New York City. Seems the newspapers were generally more impressed by Bratton's organizational transformation of the entire police department than by Giuliani's ideas about arresting a few squeegee men and graffiti artists -- which was good for PR value and did help to make the city a little more user friendly, but didn't really scare the crack gangs much -- and ooh did that make Rudy mad. But New York's loss was L.A.'s gain as it turned out and god knows they needed him too.

There's lots to pin on Rudy, but this snippet of video doesn't show him "unhinged." To me, all the video shows is a campaigner making a speech at a rally and using a barnyard epithet. This isn't his Macaca moment. It's not even his Ferret moment. This is mild stuff. Keep digging.

Agree with Mickeleh -- here's a case where hyperbole sets you back. Once could argue, reasonably, that the ferret diatribe is an example of "unhinged". This, clearly, isn't. Cynical and calculated, in fact. Quite hinged.