One of Rudy Giuliani's early achievements as mayor of New York City was to make people think twice about urinating on the streets.

"If somebody was urinating on the street," he once told The New York Times, "the reaction would be, oh, we can't do anything about that. And then the idea would start to develop that there must be some inherent human right to urinate on the street. So the police started ignoring all kinds of offenses. They'd even stand by when drug deals were going on. The police became highly skilled observers of crime."

Something had to be done, and Rudy was the man to do it.

His success in curtailing the misplaced micturitions of street people and pub-crawlers was emblematic of his larger success in cleaning up the city and driving down crime. This success made many people -- including many conservatives -- argue that Giuliani was one heck of a mayor. It was hard to disagree with them. New York smelled so much better than it used to.

Then came the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Giuliani courageously led the response that day to the emergency in Manhattan. He became a spokesman for New York City's resilience in the face of tragedy and America's defiance in the face of its enemies. "People tonight should say a prayer for the people that we've lost and be grateful that we're all here," he told a nationally televised press conference. "Tomorrow, New York is going to be here, and we're going to rebuild, and we're going to be stronger than we were before."

This made some people -- including some conservatives -- believe Giuliani would make one heck of a president. Considering his announcement this week that he is forming a presidential exploratory committee, Giuliani believes it, too.

But here it is easy to disagree with Rudy and his admirers. He has no chance of winning the Republican nomination, and, even if he did, he would not make a good president. His views on core cultural issues are too radical. Continued...