Posted on 03/29/2007 6:41:40 AM PDT by areafiftyone
They held out things for him to sign: Political fliers. Books. A baseball. Yankees hats. NYPD hats. FDNY hats. A girl's crayon drawing of an American flag on looseleaf paper. One woman even held out her checkbook.
They told him they loved him and wanted to vote for him and couldn't wait to see him in the White House.
They snapped him with their digital cameras and camera phones, shoving their children into the frame.
Moving through the aisles of the store on West Charleston Boulevard, Giuliani alternated a mock-serious survey of store shelves with posing for pictures, his rabbity, dimpled smile frozen in place.
From the $10 Value DVD rack, Giuliani selected "Remember the Titans," then waded in for more photo ops.
He stocked up on deodorant and Zone nutrition bars, batteries and lotion.
He picked up a book by Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel, whose last name, properly pronounced "vee-ZELL," he pronounced "WISE-ull."
A young woman stopped Giuliani to tell him she'd just moved to Las Vegas from New York, where she was on the 73rd floor of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
"My brother was there too," 27-year-old Jill Moran told Giuliani. "We both got out."
Moran articulated the reason everyone remembers Giuliani, the reason everyone seems to love him.
"He changed our lives," she said, her eyes filling with tears. "He's the reason we went back to the city. He's the reason we went back to work."
Giuliani makes it clear he's hoping to parlay his post-9/11 leadership into the presidency.
Asked in an interview what Nevada voters want, he said, "I think they're looking for the same thing people in New York are looking for, or Texas, or South Carolina, or Iowa or New Hampshire. They're looking for a leader. They're looking for somebody who can give the country direction, focus, at a time in which we're at war."
Those aren't necessarily qualities the current leadership lacks, Giuliani said.
"I think President Bush as president has really remained very, very focused on dealing with these terrorists and kept us on offense. But I think that's something that will be continually even more important as this moves along. Iraq is only one part of this whole terrorist war against us, and I think we've got to understand that we have to be on offense, and I think the American people are going to want a strong leader who can handle terrorism, and I think I probably have the most experience doing that."
That experience isn't limited to the legendary few months after 9/11, when Giuliani was credited with holding New York together in the wake of historic trauma, but comes from his long service as a federal prosecutor, Giuliani said.
"I handled all kinds of criminal cases, including terrorism," he said. "I investigated (former Palestinian leader) Yasser Arafat before anybody knew who he really was. I dealt with Nazi war criminals and had them sent back to be held to account for the crimes, acts against humanity. I've got a very, very long history of dealing with severe criminality and terrorism."
Giuliani was in Las Vegas just before the November election, stumping for Gov. Jim Gibbons. On Wednesday, Giuliani said he loves to play golf here, and that Las Vegas reminds him of New York City, from the tourists on the Strip to the 24-hour rhythm.
Giuliani said he was aware of the safety concerns with the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain and "somebody would have to take a good look at that."
When pressed, he did not rule out the repository, however.
"One of the things you've got to be real careful about with nuclear power is you've got to make sure it's really, really safe," he said. "Frankly, some of the problems that have occurred with Yucca Mountain are matters of grave concern, so you'd have to take a good look at that."
Those concerns should not kill the nuclear power industry, he said.
"We're going to have to find a way to expand nuclear power, because it's one of the ways in which we can give ourselves (energy) independence and also not have it impact on the environment, on pollution, global warming, the things that concern people," he said.
In polls, both nationally and in Nevada, Giuliani has a strong and steady lead among Republican voters in these very early days, long before the 2008 election. And yet the conventional wisdom in political circles is that he can't win the Republican nomination.
Is it just a stereotype to assume that Republican stalwarts won't support a thrice-married Italian-American with a brusque New York accent?
Or are the pundits right when they say all that adulation will fade when people get to know the Giuliani who is no right-winger when it comes to abortion, gun control, immigration and homosexuality?
Asked how he planned to get through the primary, Giuliani shrugged.
"Right now we're ahead," he said, laughing. "So we'll see if it stays that way."
Rudy is a RINO..and he leans very far to the left. FR wasn't created to support or promote liberals. We fight them.
sw
I was saying Rudy is a fiscal conservative - Hunter is a fiscal liberal. And I was saying that you are free to support whichever one you want to. Read Rudy's interview with Kudlow.
As long as FR allows support of Rudy here and it does at this time. Your statement is false.
Rudy the red nosed RINO needs to haul in his little brown nosed RINOs and fix the repetitious microchip implants.
Apparently when the are presented with fact, and it is beyond the scope of the program, the Brown nosed RINO shorts out, and destroys any type of coherent debate.
They need to fix it, or find a RINO website to spout their baloney without being confronted.
What's next from you? I'm a mirror, you're the glue, what comes to me, sticks to you? Grow up.
That'd be great. Just hope he runs.
WOW, is it that hard for you accept that you are free to support whoever you like and I am free to do the same?
No, my statement about FR's mission is NOT false.
And isn't it wonderful that I can tell you that you are full of it, and you can chose to lie to yourself and believe the opposite?
Rudy doesn't stand a snowballs chance in hell of being elected. You and your fellow Rubybots are going to be the ruin of the GOP and it's platform if he gets the nomination.
But you are free not to believe me..and you are also free to continue to make an ass out of yourself..Ain't it wonderful?
sw
Like I say, you are free to believe whatever you want - as is everyone in this country. And you are free to support whoever you want to for president. That's wonderful. I hope you find someone that you can get excited about.
shun the toilet paper!!!! ; )
These people are destroying this site. If the founder of this site had inane, idiot conversation in mind, it needs to be on the homepage.
I we have to put up with continual Rudy threads absent of debate and fact, in a pre primary time is unacceptable to me.
I guess it will end up in the demise of FR.
But they are "Conservative Republicans"...Something about those two words is obviously foreign to you.
Good for you. I hope you can enjoy working for the candidates you like.
doesn't have to. don't give up. engage the reasonable posters and eschew those that are incapable of debate : ) it is the only way to keep FR sane.
You know that hobble you do when you accidentally step in dog doo doo? That's where I'm at now. Off to scrap my boot on the grass!
Losing with a paleo-con is a much more certain way to lose. Pat Buchanon and his minions have had their 15 minutes of infamy on the national stage. Now they seem to have migrated to Free Republic.
And I hope YOU will enjoy working for one of my candidates when he takes the nomination away from your idol..
Who cares if Giuliani is anti-gun and supports federal funding for abortions, he was America's Mayor darnit! That makes him fully qualified to be President. Shame on me for worrying about stupid gewgaws like conservative principles, he's the ONLY ONE who can beat Hitlery. If I don't vote for Rudy, its means I actually want her Thighness to be President! How can I not vote for a guy that said, "Most of Clinton's policies are very similar to most of mine."
"Vote Rudy 2008, because conservatives can't win."
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