Continuing on about Rudy Giuliani-
in Wayne Barrett's Village Voice article, "Rudy's Five Big Lies About 9/11," Barrett posits lie #3 as "Don't Blame Me For 7 WTC, Rudy says." In a brazen denial of reality, the former mayor blames his then-director of emergency management, Jerry Hauer, for placing the city's emergency command center at the World Trade Center. Both the police commisssioner and the highest-ranking uniformed officer in the New York City Police Department both thought it foolish to put the command center there, unsurprising given that the terrorist behind the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center said that it remained a likely future target. But political considerations reigned supreme, and Barrett explained:

The 7 WTC site was the brainchild of Bill Diamond, a prominent Manhattan Republican that Giuliani had installed at the city agency handling rentals. When Diamond held a similar post in the Reagan administration a few years earlier, his office had selected the same building to house nine federal agencies. Diamond's GOP-wired broker steered Hauer to the building, which was owned by a major Giuliani donor and fundraiser. When Hauer signed onto it, he was locked in by the limitations Giuliani had imposed on the search and the sites Diamond offered him. The mayor was so personally focused on the siting and construction of the bunker that the city administrator who oversaw it testified in a subsequent lawsuit that "very senior officials," specifically including Giuliani, "were involved," which he said was a major difference between this and other projects. Giuliani's office had a humidor for cigars and mementos from City Hall, including a fire horn, police hats and fire hats, as well as monogrammed towels in his bathroom. His suite was bulletproofed and he visited it often, even on weekends, bringing his girlfriend Judi Nathan there long before the relationship surfaced. He had his own elevator. Great concern was expressed in writing that the platform in the press room had to be high enough to make sure his head was above the cameras. It's inconceivable that the hands-on mayor's fantasy command center was shaped—or sited—by anyone other than him.

In short: Rudolph Giuliani became a hero, "America's Mayor," because he was very visible and appeared authoritative walking around lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001 because he had nowhere to go. HIs command post/bachelor pad unavailable, the mayor and his huge entourage scoured the streets of Manhattan for seven hours looking for a place to hunker down.

Leadership- that's Rudy.