Two decades ago, New York City was the national archetype for urban decay and uncontrollable crime. Republicans rode to national power by making New York the “them” in an “us against them” electoral equation. Yet, tonight, the Republican National Convention will open in New York for the first time in the GOP’s more than 140-year history.

One man more than any other is the reason for this shift: first by willing New York to change from the crime capital of the country to the safest large city in America; then by rebounding from a year of scandal and cancer to symbolize the resilience of our city and nation after the attacks of September 11. As Rudy Giuliani takes the podium at Madison Square Garden tonight, the man known as America’s Mayor will be playing his new role as one of the most popular Republicans in America.

Mayor Giuliani brought the Republican Revolution to New York, overturning decades of failed liberal orthodoxy and bringing urban America back from the brink of oblivion. For all our current challenges from terrorists and anarchists, a measure of Mr. Giuliani’s success is that it is difficult for many people to remember the depth of despair that afflicted the city – one poll showed that 59% of New Yorkers believed that “things had gotten so bad, they’d leave the city the next day they could” – before his two terms as mayor

Heading up a class of “third way” mayors across the country, his leadership heralded a return of effective local governance after decades of incompetence and perceived impotence. The New Republic waxed rhapsodic about Mr. Giuliani and his fellow urban reformers by writing, “[They] represent a radical break with their predecessors…managing city government efficiently in the public interest rather than using it as a mechanism for arbitrating competing group interests. These new mayors are hugely popular…but they are outsiders in their own parties, viewed with suspicion and even contempt by their parties most powerful constituencies.”

The lineup of this convention in New York – Mayor Bloomberg, Senator McCain, and Mr. Giuliani speaking on the first night where Patrick Buchanan was slotted 12 years ago in Houston – affirms the rise of new leaders with a different brand of conservatism, the vanguard of the party as it looks to the future.

A new poll by New York magazine shows that the old resistance to independent-minded centrist Republicans among the base has receded dramatically. While President Bush – a bona-fide red state hero who will always be regarded by the faithful as a Republican giant – scores a 73% approval rating among Republicans, Rudy Giuliani scores a 70% approval rating, a statistical dead-heat. But Bush has a surprisingly high 18% disapproval rating among Republicans, while the former mayor has an almost invisible 2% disapproval rate among the same crowd.

While the poll is only one snapshot of support in a harshly polarized election year, it indicates that dividing Republicans into inflexible ideological camps has limited applicability as we look to the future. The diehards still exist, but increasingly Republicans are willing to look beyond litmus tests to assess the full measure of a man. If a Giuliani, McCain, or Schwarzenegger is convincingly tough on crime and consistently fiscally conservative, a more libertarian edge when it comes to personal choice and individual freedom is acceptable to Republicans nationally.

Mr. Giuliani has helped spearhead this evolution in large part because he is inoculated from much right-wing knee-jerk criticism through his leadership on and after September 11, a condition he has advanced by relentless campaigning for Republicans across the country. The attacks of September 11 brought New York closer to the rest of America and America closer to New York. Rudy Giuliani is a symbol of this transformation – a tough and independent-minded reformer, the quintessential New Yorker who can play in Peoria.