Posted on 01/28/2007 8:24:22 AM PST by Spiff
Giuliani touts experience, but personal life may be an issue
BY CRAIG GORDON
Newsday Washington Bureau
January 28, 2007
MANCHESTER, N.H. - Rudolph Giuliani argued yesterday that his record of cutting taxes, improving security and guiding New York through 9/11 are proof that he could do the same as president - offering his strongest signal yet that he's serious about a White House bid.
[...snip]
Giuliani is trying to bat down questions from top Republicans about whether his White House ambitions are a popularity-fueled dalliance or something more serious. His speech laid out a point-by-point rationale for his possible candidacy, seeking to portray himself as a tested leader for dangerous times in the mold of Ronald Reagan.
[...snip]
He also appeared intent on quieting questions about his marital history by giving wife Judith Nathan an unusually high-profile role here. She barely left his side in public, and he called her a "partner" whom he leaned on for everything from getting through 9/11 and prostate cancer to understanding the science behind possible anthrax attacks.
Giuliani didn't mention that when Nathan helped him after his cancer diagnosis in spring 2000, he was, in fact, still married to Donna Hanover, and that the revelation of his illness came amid the messy public breakup of his second marriage.
In the end, Giuliani's two-day visit here encapsulated the promise and challenge of his possible candidacy.
On one hand, his name recognition and tough-guy image in New York, before and after 9/11, helped him draw large and enthusiastic crowds on this visit. But even some who were eager to see him were blunt in saying his personal history and liberal social stances could prove a serious, perhaps insurmountable obstacle to winning their votes.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
McCain is 70 years old and has had several recurrences of malignant melanoma on his face and arms. In addition, he's mentally unbalanced and unstable. It's going to be Giuliani and people need to suck it up and get ready to face the real enemy that is Hillary Clinton.
Oh, please! Which one of these would have excluded Yasser Afafat from Avery Fisher Hall? Or turned down Saudi millions? Could any of these have cleaned up NYC the way Rudi did after the disastrous Dinkens years? Even Ed Koch is jealous of the job Giuliani did.
And personal life matters now? Nobody cared when the Slickster was in office. If personal life matters, let's let Hillary answer the first question.
ML/NJ
Republicans are almostly surely going to have to choose between Guiliani and McCain.
Folks like Hunter, Paul, Tancredo, Brownback, and the rest are going nowhere fast. At best, those guys will each have their supporters at this forum who can throw mud at each other for entertainment purposes, but that's about it. They'll have about as much impact on the 2008 race as Dennis Kucinich did in 2004.
"The top four candidates for the Republican nomination can’t win. Rudy Giuliani, John McCain....Romney with all of the flip-flops on abortion and Newt Gingrich, who I don't think gets into it. That leaves a cast of lesser-known Republicans in line for a surprise run toward the nomination. I think that the Republican nominee is going to be one of these minor leaguers: Tancredo, Huckabee, Brownback, Gilmore from Virginia, Duncan Hunter from California....it's like the pitching rotation is all going to be injured at the World Series and the Triple –A pitching staff, one of them is going to pitch the opening game."
And being mayor during 911--in fact being only a few blocks from the WTC when the attack occurred--gives this mayor a special perspective as to what this enemy has in mind.
I can't believe you found SPIFF's picture! LOL!
Giuliani was chief executive officer of a city with a $50B+ budget and more than 8 million residents for 8 years.
Duncan Hunter has zero executive experience. He talks and spends tax money, but has never run a municipality of any size.
So then why did the vast majority of residents of the city of New York vote for John Kerry in 2004?
Not only that Rudy does have the reputation of shking things up, which areneeded in Washington.
Er, cause Rudy wasn't running and they weren't voting for a Texan?
I think it's going to be Guiliani, too, but McCain has his supporters. For some reason, unknown to me, Arizona keeps re-electing him.
The ones here who are spamming every thread about Guiliani with their same diatribes will not vote for him in either their primary or the general election, but he has more than enough appeal to independents to make up for that.
But much has happened since (I hope). The previously loyal Jewish vote is noticing that the Dem's are not behind Israel and the ever helpful Jimma Carter has further driven home the point that left is even anti-semitic.
Giuliani is one of the good ones. Why do you insist on eliminating three when I can decide those things for myself?
Didn't we go over this already I can choose without any help from you.
Duncan Hunter has zero executive experience.
What does that acronym mean?
I believe that's the same Dick Morris who predicted three days before our last election that the Republicans would comfortably hold the Senate.
I know you have fond hopes that Tom Tancredo will win the nomination, but it just ain't gonna happen.
In terms of population and budget, way more then just a view small ones.
8 million people, budget in 2003 of approximatel 43 billion
The New York metropolitan area had an estimated gross metropolitan (like domestic) product of $901.3 billion in 2004, the largest in the United States.
I don't like it any more than you do, but the people who don't pay attention to politics but vote anyway are the ones you have to attract in November. They determine the outcome of the election.
Guiliani might lose the support of the one-issue conservatives, although I think many of those might still support him if the alternative is President Hillary. They wouldn't like it, but the alternative is just too scary.
But Guiliani connects with the David Letterman audience, and that's not something to be dismissed as politically irrelevant.
The last sitting House member to be elected President was James Garfield in 1880.
The Tancredo-Hunter cults don't seem to understand that America wants men with executive experience to be their President.
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