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."
And I bet you watch every day, too, don't you! While scarfing down your Captain Crunch and banana. And then it is off to the sand box.
Figures, high risk gamblers, abortion fans, ilegal immigrants, the liberal media and aids cases just love the guy!
It's not a hysterical meltdown, it's concern for the well being of our country, which Rudy fans don't seem to care a whit about.
I'm also TIME's person of the year. Imagine that!
Thompson is far more electable than Giuliani!
True, but you had share the honor with me and millions of others. Rudy wore the crown by himself. :)
i see you guys saying that, but i guess because i don't encounter them in my everyday life, i have trouble believing it.
How is being on the front of a liberal rag "wearing a crown"? My problem with Rudy fans. Liking sombody is one thing. Adoring praise coupled with failure to recognize and admit his downside is so foolish. The media is sure going to exploit Rudys lipservice to fawning fools.
Gawd, considering how early the current front-runners dove into the pond, Fred is hardly stalling by historical standards.
IMO he and Richardson are allowing the current front-runners in their respective parties to knock each other silly.
"What is best in life? To fool conservatives, to see them fall at your feet -- to then trash their values and take their taxes and hear the lamentations of their strategists..."
Its seems that half of their argument for Rudy is that there is no conservative alternative that has traction in the primary. But once one pops up (Thompson), they immediately try and torpedo him, and then bitch and moan about lack of "executive experience".
are you kidding? that is part of his appeal to more than a few of them.
I'd rather have someone with no executive experience than someone who used their executive experience to carry out a lot of bad, non-conservative actions.
If they're willing to GAMBLE away our party and country by supporting and voting for THIS piece-of-crap liberal RINO, then THEY, and not US, deserve him.
If we somehow, through SUPPOSED "republicans" or self-described "conservatives" gambling on RINO-rudy, (God forbid) get stuck with him as our "republican" POTUS, our party and country will be SCREWED for YEARS to come (a BAD precedent will have occurred).
Just say NO to ANY and ALL RINOs.
In this case, let what happened in Vegas, STAY in Vegas (RINO-rudy might make a decent dog-catcher out there).
Give it up, liberal RINO-rudy-ROOTERS.
Hitler was on the cover of TIME as well.
Yep...Ol' Cannonball Fred is thinkin' about maybe considerin' whether he might want to look at the possiblity of whether or not he should consider having a forum to talk about the merits of debating a possible testing of the waters and considering to run...
In all honesty, I like Thompson. He's certainly head and shoulders above any of Rudy's other competitors.
But he needs to make a decision.
Yesterday.
Then again, so were you.
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