MLB baseball is now being played in Florida and Arizona in preparation for opening day. And it is a wonderful feeling.
Currently, there is no Republican or Democratic presidential candidate that is more of a baseball fan than Rudy Giuliani.
Given that most voters are not New York Yankees fans: does the baseball vote matter? Is there even any such thing as a "baseball vote?"
Certainly it is difficult to quantify. However, some voters in November 2008 may want to give the benefit of the doubt to an authentic and die-hard baseball fan for the next president of the United States of America.
IT is nearly impossible for the chattering classes - on all sides of the political divide - to comprehend the heat being generated by Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid.
"I don't think anything separates us more right now between Republicans and Democrats than how we look at taxes," the former New York mayor said. "What we understand as Republicans is that, sure, the government is an important player in this, but we are essentially a private economy. What Democrats really believe ... is that it is essentially a government economy."
Rudy Giuliani delivered the keynote remarks to the Hoover Institution's Overseers’ Luncheon at the Willard InterContinental in DC today. Although there were no rah-rah moments for the 9/11 hero, the crowd was instead treated to Giuliani as the champion of free market enterprise -- the tax-cutting, welfare-reducing, budget-balancing descendant of Ronald Reagan. Hotline On Call
News from the GOP presidential race this morning. In a couple of hours, Rudy Giuliani will announce that William Simon, Jr., the former candidate for governor of California, is joining the Giuliani campaign as director of policy.
PRINCETON, NJ -- Recent USA Today/Gallup presidential heats measures indicate the 2008 election is not going to be easy for either party. Various pairings of the leading Republican and Democratic contenders generally result in extremely close races. If such early indications are correct, to win, the candidates may need to maximize their support from all sides: their political base, political independents, and even members of the opposing party.
WASHINGTON–It sounds like a lead-up to a cheesy joke and it goes something like this: So this guy from New York who's been married three times, wed his second cousin, supports abortion rights and gun control and used to live with a gay couple goes to conservative South Carolina and asks the locals to help him become the Republican president of the United States.
In a match-up between the early 2008 frontrunners, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) leads New York Senator Hillary Clinton (D) 52% to 43%. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds Giuliani’s lead growing in recent months.
Rudy Giuliani has picked up the edorsement of Rep. Charlie Dent (PA). According to Giuliani's team, Dent plans "to enlist other" PA GOPers to follow suit.
In a move to increase its relevance in the presidential selection process, the Golden State is set to jump up its primary from June of 2008 to February 5th, less than a year away.
This may benefit New York's presidential aspirants, and especially its Republican one.
Last week I noted Giuliani's electric support at the California Republican Party convention. A recent poll has resoundingly brought forth the same message. This morning, the Wall Street Journal's John Fund notes the following numbers:
Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani leads Sen. Hillary Clinton 48 - 43 percent among American voters in a 2008 national presidential poll released by Quinnipiac University today. Arizona Sen. John McCain edges Sen. Clinton 46 - 44 percent.
In most of the Presidential elections since 1973, I have been what the pollsters refer to as a "single-issue" voter, being ever stalwart in my support for vigorous pro-life candidates. But this primary, I'm voting for Guiliani, despite his pro-choice stance. Here's why.
Overall crime down 63.9%; top personal-income-tax rate down 20.6%; overall tax burden down 17.0%; hotel tax rate down 16.7%; hotel-tax revenue up 104.3%; average annual growth in NYC inflation up 3.9%; average annual growth in NYC government spending up 2.9%; unemployment rate down 45.2%; private employment up 15.2%.
I've never voted for Rudy Giuliani in my life. But I'm thinking hard about it now.
In both cases, I surprise myself.
The rest of America may know Rudy as "America's Mayor" for his ceremonial performance post-9/11, but for New Yorkers who lived through the Dinkins years, Rudy Giuliani is more than a guy who stands tall when the skyscrapers fall. By the late '90s, people were beginning to say that New York City was ungovernable: Remember the court-driven interest group spending, the disorder, the bums taking over the parks and the playgrounds and the street corners, spiraling welfare costs, the crime, the small business disaster, the high taxes, rent control, the South Bronx? New York was a disaster area, a poster child for what liberalism hath wrought.
The glittering cosmopolitan New York City we now live in, the one seemingly every college student in America dreams about moving to, is largely Rudy's gift, forged in the face of intense, daily, nasty invective from those who at the time insisted that to demand order and civility in a large city was to be a fascist.
Even Rudy's 9/11 performance tends to be misdescribed. It was not that he "stood tall" or didn't emotionally collapse. George Bush came to New York City and made graceful speeches about how we will rebuild the hole in the ground that still remains. What stood out for us in that dark time was not that the mayor of New York insisted we would triumph over this adversity, but that he didn't try to spin us about how unimaginably bad this sort of adversity was. He didn't try to soft-pedal the uncertainty, the chaos, the suffering the city was going through, and that gave us the confidence to believe that reality, terrible as it was, could in fact be faced.
I never voted for Rudy when I lived in New York City for one simple reason: abortion. I don't look for purity in politicians, just for some small pro-life reason to vote for a guy: Medicaid funding, parental notification, partial birth abortion. Throw me the slightest lifeline, otherwise I assume he just doesn't want the vote of people like me. Rudy never did. So I never gave him my vote.
And of course it doesn't help now to recall the way Rudy treated his second wife, nor do I particularly want to imagine the third Mrs. Giuliani as Laura Bush's successor. So I could have sworn, even a few months ago, that I'd never vote for Rudy Giuliani, in spite of my deep respect for his considerable achievements as mayor.
So why would I even think of changing my mind? Two things: national security, and Hillary Clinton's Supreme Court appointments.
When I ask myself, who of all the candidates in both parties do I most trust to keep me and my children safe? The answer is instantaneous, deeper than the level any particular policy debate can go: Rudy Giuliani. And when I look ahead on social issues like gay marriage, the greatest threat I see is that the Supreme Court with two or more appointments from Hillary Clinton, will decide that our Founding Fathers, in their wisdom, created a national constitutional right to whatever social liberals have decided is the latest civil rights battle.
It's hard to see a state that George Bush won in which Rudy Giuliani will not beat Hillary Clinton. And he will put a whole slew of new blue states into play: Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, to name just three. (The latest Quinnipiac poll shows Giuliani in a dead heat with Clinton in Connecticut.)
Which puts people like me, who care very deeply about marriage and life issues, in the position of thinking hard about Rudy.
Despite a resume that includes tackling organized crime as a U.S. attorney and reforming welfare in the Big Apple, Rudy Giuliani might always be remembered for his response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.To many people, he was a symbol of New York’s — and America’s — resilience in the face of its most devastating attack on domestic soil.
A March fund-raiser for Rudy Giuliani in John McCain's home state is nearly sold out, said one of the event's co-hosts.
Barron Thomas, an Arizona-based Republican donor backing Mr. Giuliani said that the $1000 - $2300 tickets for a March 9th event at a private residence is Phoenix are nearly gone.
Thomas said that while a McCain fund-raiser on March 3rd "somewhere downtown" had lined up "all the high society guys," Giuliani's fund-raiser was attracting "blue collar and white collar" supporters. The guest list, he said, "cut across economic and cultural lines."
Thomas said that he had decided not to support his home senator because "McCain wakes up every day and has a new position." Thomas said that he felt McCain had flipped on campaign finance reform, and felt betrayed by McCain's support for benefits for illegal immigrants.
For the second straight week, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) holds a fourteen percentage point lead in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination. Giuliani attracts support from 33% of Likely Primary Voters while Arizona Senator John McCain is supported by 19%. A week ago, it was Giuliani 32% McCain 18%.
Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, who favors abortion rights, said Friday if elected in 2008 he wouldn't hesitate to appoint anti-abortion conservatives such as Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito to the federal bench.
Giuliani headed a fundraiser in Richmond organized by Jerry W. Kilgore, the anti-abortion Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2005, and attended by several social conservatives who oppose abortion.
"They share the kind of overall judicial philosophy that I have," Giuliani said during an impromptu news conference just before the fundraiser.
Bill Simon: I think Rudy will make an extraordinary President. I don't know of anyone I'm in 100% agreement with respect to every issue -- even my fellow conservatives. So I'm not troubled if I don't agree with someone on every issue as long as they demonstrate very strong leadership qualities, which Rudy does, and a very strong sense of public service, which Rudy does, and a very firm agenda in areas that are important to me and in a way in which he can execute -- all of which Rudy does.
One of the best political minds in the business, Robert Novak has this take on Rudy Giuliani:
"Giuliani is often dismissed because of his social liberalism...But as Rudy courts conservatives, more than a few are willing to overlook his social liberalism and embrace his candidacy. The former New York City mayor tries to show that pro-lifers would probably see little difference between him and George W. Bush in terms of the kind of judges he would appoint, and he gives a soft sell to his support for gun control, arguing that New York was impossible to control without it. Throw in that Rudy is tough on terror and could be the most electable, and the conservative case for him is at least serious. The questions surrounding Rudy are first, whether enough conservatives can be sold on a pro-choice, pro-gun control candidate, and second, whether his meanness and his tumultuous personal life are too much for any presidential candidate to overcome."
My husband, a former Marine, recently made an announcement in his most forceful tone: "I'll never vote for Giuliani for president even if he's running against Hillary Clinton."
Of course, he never voted for Mr. Giuliani in the mayoral elections (I did, twice). My husband does concede that if Mr. Giuliani were now running for mayor, he would pull that lever because he wouldn't be afraid the candidate could affect national policy on social issues. It's voters such as my spouse that Mr. Giuliani will have to convince to win the Republican nomination.
...according to the new Fox News Poll. Asked who would they support in a Republican primary if the choices were McCain or Giuliani, 56% of Republicans said Giuliani, and 31% said McCain. 50% of Independents said Giuliani, and 27% said McCain.
"What we pay people in Washington for is to make decisions," former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told the audience at the California GOP convention in Sacramento Saturday.
Meanwhile, back in Washington, members of Congress have been acting as if they were sent to Washington to make non-decisions. Witness the nonbinding House resolution being debated this week in which members profess to support U.S. troops in Iraq, but, "Congress disapproves of the decision of President George W. Bush announced on Jan. 10, 2007, to deploy more than 20,000 additional U.S. combat troops to Iraq."
The Senate couldn't even manage to pass a meaningless Iraq resolution when it tried earlier this month -- a non-accomplishment for which the senators, over time, may be glad.
What are Americans to think of the House resolution?
Pundits of all political persuasions have been chattering about whether Rudy Giuliani, whose name is invariably modified by the description "social liberal," can overcome the objections of many religious conservatives to win the Republican nomination.
Will his assurances to appoint judges in the mold of Roberts, Alito and Scalia be "enough" to put their concerns to rest? Will conservatives overlook social issues in an election focusing largely on foreign policy?
The more interesting question is whether Giuliani can establish a new description of what it means to be "socially conservative." Perhaps to be socially conservative means something more than just fidelity to pro-life and anti-gay marriage positions.
It is the greatness of the United States that daunting challenges inevitably summon to the fore leaders with the steel to rise to the occasion and the grasp to raise us up with them. Leaders whose confidence and command cut through the noise and the naysayers. Leaders who stir us not only to the urgency of action but to the achievability of victory through America’s exceptional gifts.
Rudy Giuliani, a prostate-cancer survivor who fought the disease seven years ago, will have a "comprehensive" physical exam and release the results, his aides said yesterday.
Giuliani and his chief GOP presidential primary rival, John McCain, have both battled cancer in the past seven years, and the Arizona senator recently said he would likely release full medical records in the campaign.
Asked by The Post about the ex-mayor's plans, a Giuliani campaign source said he had an overall checkup in December and got a "clean bill of health" and is cancer-free.
GIULIANI: I mean, you can look at the practical and common sense conclusion on that anyway you want. But there's something more important than that. We have a right of free speech in this country and we elect people to make decisions. Here's what I would prefer to see them do, though, if you ask me what's my view on that. The nonbinding resolution thing gets me more than are you for it or against it. I have tremendous respect for the people who feel that we either made a mistake going to war, who voted against the war, who now have come to the conclusion, changed their minds, they have every right to that, that it's wrong, you should, in a dynamic situation, keep questioning. What I don't like is the idea of a nonbinding resolution.
KING: Because?
GIULIANI: Because there's no decision.
KING: But it's a statement.
GIULIANI: Yes, but that's what you do. That's what Tim Russert does and that's what Rush Limbaugh does. That's what you guys do, you make comments. We pay them to make decisions, not just to make comments. We pay them to decide. The United States Congress does declarations, the war…
KING: So if you feel that way, withhold funds and that's the way you feel?
GIULIANI: The ones I think have a better understanding of what their responsibility is and are willing to take a risk are the ones who are saying we've got to hold back the funds, we've got to vote against the war or we're for the war. And maybe it's because I ran a government and I tend to be a decisive person. I like decisions. And I think one of the things wrong with Washington is they don't want to make tough decisions anymore. Nonbinding resolution about Iraq, no decision on immigration, no decision on Social Security reform, no decision on what to do about energy independence, no decision. You know why that happens? Because it's unpopular.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) continues to hold a solid, double-digit, lead in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination. Giuliani attracts support from 32% of Likely Primary Voters, fourteen points more than the number two man in the race, Arizona Senator John McCain. This is the largest lead yet measured for Giuliani. A week ago, he was ahead 27% to 19%.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Republican Rudy Giuliani holds an early lead in the Sunshine State, according to a poll by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
47 per cent of respondents in Florida would vote for the former New York City mayor in the 2008 United States presidential election, while 44 per cent would support Democratic New York senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
ABC News' Tahman Bradley Reports: On Sean Hannity's radio program, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani R-N.Y., hammered congressional Democrats and their Republican allies for pushing the non-binding resolution opposing President Bush's troop increase in Iraq saying that the American people did not elect lawmakers "to do non-binding resolutions."
Giuliani, who hopes to capture the 2008 Republican nomination for president, described the debate over the resolution as nothing but a "comment," and dared member of Congress who oppose the Iraq war to "step up and take some risk."
"With so much at stake for our country I find a non-binding resolution very disappointing," he said.
"This is not an area where I claim to be an expert, but I do understand how agriculture is critical to our nation," said Giuliani, who said he is seeking the Republican nomination. "If you're from Brooklyn, this a very good thing for you to see."
Theodore Olson, the stalwart conservative lawyer and former solicitor general for the Bush administration, told the Spectator he will be supporting Rudy Giuliani's presidential bid.
"I admire his character, his capacity for leadership, his instincts, and his principles," Olson said over the phone this afternoon. He said he will help Giuliani raise money as well as offer advice on legal issues and domestic policy matters that involve constitutional questions.
I don't often like to write articles that attack the media. I understand that the bottom line is ratings and I'm comfortable with that. I understand that certain stations have biases and I have no problem with that either. However, for some reason in almost every form of media, Rudy Giuliani is misunderstood.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the moderate Republican who leads in a number of early polls for president of the United States, began the process of fleshing out his platform yesterday in Silicon Valley. His well received if discursive address to the California Republican Party convention on Saturday started getting honed down into a usable political document in an address to the Churchill Club at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Rudy Giuliani and John McCain are the favourite presidential hopefuls for Republican Party supporters in the Lone Star State, according to a poll by Baselice & Associates. 28 per cent of likely GOP primary voters would vote for the New York City mayor in the 2008 United States primary, while 26 per cent would support Arizona senator John McCain.
Don't write off Giuliani's appeal to social conservatives. BY BRENDAN MINITER Tuesday, February 13, 2007 12:01 a.m. EST
The book on Rudy Giuliani is that he is too liberal on social issues to win the Republican presidential nomination. Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, put it succinctly: "I don't see anyone getting the Republican nomination who is not pro-life and a staunch defender of traditional marriage."
Jon Chait comments on the prospect of a Giuliani/Lieberman ticket in 2008. ... Could a Giuliani/Lieberman neutralize the CW on this issue? Giuliani reminds America of the time immediately after 9/11--scary, to be sure, ...
Giuliani is probably the strongest potential Republican candidate, as he is the one best ... Another tissue joining Giuliani and Lieberman is, obviously, ... Both Giuliani and Lieberman have in common a tendency to understand foreign ...
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, still basking in his can-do post-Sept. 11 image, got a rousing welcome yesterday from Republican activists searching for a presidential candidate who can win in California.
No Republican presidential candidate has carried California since the elder George Bush did in 1988, and no one has even run a competitive race in the increasingly Democratic-leaning state since then.
(CBS/AP)WASHINGTON Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Monday defended the Iraq war and criticized Al Gore's global-warming movie.
As for his presidential ambitions, Giuliani coyly inched closer to a formal announcement.
"I am 100 percent committed," he said. "That official part, I still have to do a formal announcement. But we'll figure out how to do that. My idea is that I'm going to try to announce this in 100 different places."
Molinari stated, “I’ve seen the results of Mayor Giuliani’s leadership – cutting taxes, transforming a historic deficit into a multi-billion dollar surplus and reducing crime.
MANCHESTER, N.H. - New Hampshire residents likely to vote in the Republican presidential primary a year from now think more highly of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani than any of his rivals, a poll released Tuesday shows.
Giuliani's net favorability rating — the proportion of people viewing him favorably minus the proportion viewing him unfavorably — was 56 percent, well ahead of Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record), 32 percent, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 26 percent, in the University of New Hampshire poll for WMUR-TV in Manchester.
"He's the lesser-known candidate, but he has that rock star quality," poll director Andy Smith said of Giuliani. "He has a charisma that was built after 9-11."
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Most of the potential GOP candidates for president fall somewhere along the scale ranging from reliably pro-life to opposing abortion but supporting embryonic stem cell research. Rudy Giuliani falls squarely in the pro-abortion camp but he's now trying to reassure pro-life voters he's not that bad. Giuliani has always been in favor of legalized abortion -- even supporting the grisly partial-birth abortion procedure that kills an unborn child halfway through the birthing process.
When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani speak at the California Republican Convention this weekend, some party leaders from Solano County will be there and listening carefully.
Approximately 1,300 delegates from across the state are expected to fill the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Sacramento beginning today through Sunday. Among them will be Mike Gomez, the chair of the Solano County Republican Party Central Committee, and Lynda Rose McMahan, chair of Solano Republican Women's Federated.
Rudy Giuliani is a compelling candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2008. He saved New York City, by restoring law and order and breaking with the disastrous urban liberalism of the 1970s. He will forever be honored for his leadership after the 9/11 attacks. And his effective, no-nonsense management style and straight-talking persona are enormously appealing. Our colleague John Podhoretz is correct when he points out that conservatives want to like Giuliani, and we would add that there is a lot to like.
Republican primary voters should rally around the GOP field's most accomplished supply-sider, the all-but-announced Rudolph W. Giuliani. Having sliced taxes and slashed Gotham's government, New York's former mayor is the leading fiscal conservative among 2008's GOP presidential contenders.
Before Giuliani's January 1, 1994 inauguration, New York's economy was on a stretcher. Amid soaring unemployment, 235 jobs vanished daily. Financier Felix Rohatyn complained: "Virtually all human activities are taxed to the hilt." Punitive taxes helped fuel a $2.3 billion deficit.
Mayor-elect Giuliani sounded Reaganesque when he announced he would "reduce the size and cost of city government" to balance the budget. In his first State of the City address, he said: "We're going to cut taxes to attract jobs so our people can work."
"Many people do not like or believe in supply-side economics. And those people, and others, like it even less when it works. Giuliani made it work in New York City - without doubt."
New York, Feb 8 - “Today I’m announcing my endorsement for Rudy Giuliani for President of the United States. I really have taken a lot of time and really thought about who I would be supporting and working for during this presidential campaign because of course I think the issues and the challenges that are facing our nation so very, very intense, so incredibly intense. I have spoken with all the major candidates, I have carefully evaluated their positions, I’ve looked very carefully at how their stance on various issues, maybe areas where I agree with them or in some cases of course where there might be some divisions that might be a bit different from mine. But most importantly I have tried to evaluate their readiness. And I use that phrase, I really believe that evaluate their readiness to handle the awesome responsibilities of the presidency. And I say that because, you know, really no one knows what exact challenges or events the next president will face, but we all know that something, perhaps beyond our ability almost to comprehend, could happen and we know that just because of the way that the world is now. So I think at the heart of it for me, I’ve been trying to decide which of the candidates in my mind possess the strengths to make the right decision and to do so under the worst possible scenario, and principally based on that criteria I’ve come to the very certain conclusion that the individual best prepared to lead America is Rudy Giuliani.”
February 8, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - A Rudy Giuliani fan is tormenting rival White House candidate John Edwards - with a "Go Rudy" sign on his own fence just 100 feet from the Democrat's palatial and controversial North Carolina compound.
Edwards' "home is a monster. It's way over the top," said neighbor Monty Johnson, who planted a "Go Rudy Giuliani 2008" sign near Edwards' driveway.
Edwards is catching flak for playing to the nation's poor on the campaign trail - while living large in the most expensive home in all of Orange County, N.C.
Rudy Giuliani's announcement that he will seek the Republican presidential nomination brings to my mind a book I wrote in the early 1990s, "The Conservative Crack-Up." When I wrote the book, Ronald Reagan's successor, President George H. W. Bush, was ignoring many of the constituent ingredients of the Reagan Revolution, for instance, tax cuts. The various factions of the conservative coalition were disgruntled and threatening to take a walk. Once again liberal pundits were diagnosing the conservative movement as moribund.
Giuliani's no Cary Grant (who, by the way, did not actually say "Judy, Judy, Judy"in any movie). But nevertheless, to an electorate starved for somebody to love, he's got a certain rough charm.
John Podhoretz thinks (hat tip: Pajamas Media) that Rudy might just be able to capture the Republican nomination for President in 2008 (although that headline, John, seems to be a case of bad timing: surely "right stuff" can't be the best phrase to use at the moment, in light of recent events).
By David Saltonstall Associated Press Writer Wednesday, February 7, 2007 10:06 AM EST
NEW YORK -- The biggest question facing Rudy Giuliani's budding presidential bid has always been: How does a pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-gay rights moderate woo the social conservatives that dominate Republican primaries?
But now some are asking another question: Does Giuliani even need social conservatives to win, given likely changes in the GOP primary schedule?
In a switch that could radically redraw the electoral map, California, New Jersey, Florida and Illinois -- all big, moderate states with small evangelical wings -- are expected to move their presidential primaries to Feb. 5, just two weeks after the first primary in New Hampshire.
Rudy Giuliani is in. Suggested campaign slogan: "He dealt with Brooklyn. He can handle Baghdad.'' He's not a sure thing; he has enough baggage to fill the cargo hold of a cruise ship. His sundry personal-life issues bother social conservatives; the gun control stance dismays the Second Amendment wing of the party; the pro-choice opinions alarm the evangelicals. That leaves about 47 Republicans, right? After all, it's just a party of cousin-marrying yahoos who'd sooner shoot up Planned Parenthood than vote for one of those fish-on-Friday types. Right?
No. Voters are more flexible and forgiving than you might expect. And none of the objections obscure the central appeal of the Rudy candidacy: He'll nuke 'em if he has to. That won't be the central theme of his campaign, of course, but it's the unstated strength of his candidacy. He's not a wuss.
February 6, 2007 -- IT'S semi-pseudo-almost-nearly kind-of official: Rudy's running for president. Basically. In essence. He could change his mind. But he probably won't. Almost certainly.
Which makes sense. Rudy Giuliani is leading the Republican field by five points (with 31 percent to John McCain's 26 percent, according to the Real Clear Politics poll average).
I've never been much of a gambler, but my friends are another story altogether. If a sportsbook offers a line on the Unicycle Hockey World Championship (yes, it exists), they will spend hours searching for information on whether to take Australia over Canada. And if there is one mantra they have been insistent on until this year, it has been this: Always Bet Against Peyton Manning in the Playoffs.
Sure, the Colts' quarterback has a fine football pedigree, a high football IQ, and all those records. But up to this years' playoffs, he had a mediocre 6-6 record. In the end, my friends have said, he will choke in the big game. And they have been right in the past.
In a similar vein, political horse race analysts routinely discount Rudy Giuliani's chances of securing the Republican presidential nomination, notwithstanding his considerable strengths.
HANNITY: I'm Sean Hannity. We get to our top story tonight. Earlier today former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani filed a statement of candidacy papers. Mayor Giuliani joins us for "Hannity & Colmes" exclusive. Congratulations or condolences?
GIULIANI: A little of both. Mostly congratulations. It's wonderful thing to be organizing and putting together and it's very humbling to think that running for president of the united states is-- for a kid from Brooklyn, it's quite a step
HANNITY: you are then officially running to be the next president of the United States.
GIULIANI: Well. We still have to formally announce and do a few more things. But this is about as close as you get. We did everything you have to do I guess legally then you still have to make a formal announcement and things like that
HANNITY: Are you in it to win it?
GIULANI: Gosh yeah. That's the only reason to do it. First thing you have to do is say to yourself what can I bring to it, what can I do that's different and how can i make the country better? how can i improve it? i think the experiences that I've had as mayor of New York city, united states attorney, all of them very, very strongly kind of in the executive area where you have to have leadership and organization and focus and having dealt with a city that was really bad shape when I took over and I had to kind of turn around, i think it gives you the background to approach it and feel pretty comfortable that you can make a difference
HANNITY: Democrat were predicting this back in November. November 14th as a matter of fact. They said it's unclear whether or not Rudy Giuliani will be able to explain away the fact he has consistently taken positions completely opposite to the conservative republican base on issues they hold near and dear. That is accurate?
GIULIANI: I don't think anyone has campaigned much more than I have for republican candidates going back to 1998. I've been in 45 states on behalf of 200 candidates. All republicans. different-- sometimes differences on issues here and there. but same basic philosophy of strong foreign policy being on offense against terrorism, smaller government, lower taxes. And in my case those are things that I did. Those things I just mentioned are not just things I believe in. I lowered taxes in New York. I reduced the size of government in New York. I took a $2.4 billion deficit and turned it into a $3.2 billion surplus. And I reduced taxes over 23 times.
HANNITY: That's pretty good.
GIULIANI: Those are very conservative. On the issues-- sometimes there are disagreements. You never agree with any one candidate 100%. You don't even agree with me 100%. And I agree with you almost 100%
HANNITY: That might get you in trouble. That's the first campaign gaff. Let's talk about the controversial issues. You will be asked about them. Where does Rudy Giuliaini stand on abortion? And do you think roe v. wade is a good law or bad law.
GIULANI: I oppose it. I don't like it. I hate it. I think abortion is something that is a personal matter I would advise something against. However, I believe in a woman's right to choose. I think you have to ultimately not put a woman in jail for that. I think ultimately you have to leave that to a disagreement of conscience and have to respect the choice that somebody makes. So what I do say to conservatives because then you want to look at well okay what can we look to that is similar to the way you think. I think the appointment of judges that I would make would be very similar to if not exactly the same as the last two judges that were appointed. Chief Justice Roberts is somebody I work with, somebody I admire. Justice Alito, someone I knew when he was US attorney, also admire. If I had been president over the last four years, I can't think of any-- that I'd do anything different with that. I guess the key is and I appointed over 100 judges when I was the mayor so it's something I take very, very seriously. I would appoint judges that interpreted the constitution rather than invented it. Understood the difference of being a judge and a legislator. And having argued a case before the Supreme Court, having argued in many, many courts is something I would take very seriously.
HANNITY: So you would look for a Scalia, Roberts, Alito.
GIULIANI: Scalia is another former colleague of mine and somebody I consider to be a great judge. You are never going to get somebody exactly the same. I don't think you have a litmus test. But I do think you have a general philosophical approach that you want from a justice. I think a strict instruction would be probably the way I describe it.
HANNITY: Is Roe bad?
GIULIANI: I think that's up to the court to decide. There are questions about the way it was decided and some of the basis for it. At this point it's precedent. It's going be very interesting to see what Chief Justice Roberts what Justices Scalia and Alito do with it. i think they're probably going to limit it rather than overturn it. In other words, they'll accept some of the limitations that different states have placed on it or the federal government has placed on it.
HANNITY: Partial birth?
GIULIANI: I think that's going to be upheld. I think it should be. as long as there's provision for the life of the mother then that's something that should be done.
HANNITY: There's a misconception that you support a partial birth abortion.
GIULIANI: If it doesn't have provision for the mother I wouldn't support the legislation. If it has provision for the life of the mother I would support
HANNITY: Parental notification.
GIULIANI: I think you have to have a judicial bypass. I think the court-- I mean that's the kind of thing i think the court will do with abortion. The other thing I should emphasize is while I was the mayor there's a column just written about it, abortions in New York wept down and adoptions went way up. Because we work odd adoptions as an alternative. so it would be a real choice. So that ultimately you respect a woman's choice. But it should be a real choice. adoption or if they make that choice I don't think the criminal law can deal with it.
HANNITY: I think conservatives would be happy with choices of Roberts, Scalia and Alito but there will be a disagreement on abortions.
GIULIANI: There are always disagreements. And then some people just won't be able to vote for you. You got to live with that. Reality is you got to be who you are. You got to be honest with people. If your views change you got to be willing to express it. When I was mayor my views changed. I began as mayor thinking I could reform the school system. After four years I became an advocate of choice, of scholarships and vouchers and parental choice because I thought that was the only way to really change the school system. When I started as mayor, I didn't believe that. When I went through three or four years of experience, that's what it taught me. I think you have to be willing-- you have strong ideas, strong views. but then you have to be willing to look at experience.
HANNITY: The issue of guns has come up a lot. When people talk about mayor Rudy Giuliani New York city had some of the toughest gun laws in the country. Do you support the right of people to carry handguns.
GIULANI: I understand the second amendment. People have the right to bear arms. As mayor of New York I took over at a very, very difficult time. We were averaging--
HANNITY: You inherited the gun laws in New York.
GIULIANI: Yeah. And I used them to help bring down homicide. We reduced homicide I think by 65, 70%. And some of it was by taking guns out of the streets of New York City. So if you are talking about a city like New York, a densely populated area like New York, I think it's appropriate. You might have different laws other places and maybe a lot of this gets resolved based on different states, different communities, making decisions. We do have a federal system of government in which you have the ability to accomplish that.
HANNITY: So you would support the state's rights to choose on specific gun laws?
GIUILANI: Yeah. A place like New York that is densely populated or maybe a place that is experiencing a serious crime problem like a few cities are now. Thank goodness not New York but some other cities. Maybe you have one solution there and in other place more rural, more suburban, other issues you have a different set of rule.
HANNITY: Generally speaking do you think it's acceptable if citizens have the right to carry a handgun?
GIULIANI: It's part of the constitution. People have the right to bear arms. Then restrictions have to be reasonable and sensible. You can't just remove that right. You got to regulate consistent with the second amendment
HANNITY: How do you feel about the Brady Bill on assault ban.
GIULIANI: I was in favor of that as part of the crime bill. Because I thought it was necessary to get the crime bill passed and also necessary with the 2000 murders or so we were looking at, 1800 to 2000 murders that I could use that in a tactical way to reduce crime. And I did.
HANNITY: Let me ask you about gay marriage. What do you think about the definition of marriage? Should it be between a man and woman.
GIULIANI: Marriage should be between a man and a woman. here is exactly the position I've always had. It's the same-- I feel the same way today that I did eight, ten years ago when i signed the domestic partnership legislation. Marriage should be between a man and woman and should remain that way. we should be tolerant, fair, open and understand the rights that all people have in society I. thought the best answer was domestic partnership as a way of dealing with that. so that you are recognizing the rights of people who are gay and protect them.
HANNITY: How do you feel about the borders? It's one of our most important security issues. There's talk about building a fence. Do you support that? Do you support amnesty? Do you support guest worker?
GIULIANI: I support security at the border. I think its enormously important in the post September 11th period. We have to know who is coming into this country. We have to be able to identify them and figure out who they are. I do think that with the fence-- the fence honestly has to be a technological fence. The head of my party, the new head, Mel Martinez who is a Senator from Florida, a great guy, he was being interviewed and they asked him about a fence. Do you think a fence should be put up. He said sure. He said except the only people that will pull put it up will be the illegal immigrants. I thought what the point that Mel was making was we need a technological fence. We need to be able to photograph people, see them, know who is there, record them. And then I think there has to be regularization for the people that are here. There's got to be a program to regularize the people that are here as you establish security at the border. And I would add to many of the proposals-- because there are a number of them in the house, senate and president as put forward. I would add to that at the end of the road if somebody's going to earn citizenship with-- citizenship with whatever other hurdles put in the way, at the end of the road they should be able to speak English, read English and have some knowledge of American history. Particularly if you are going to regularize somebody who in an undocumented status.
HANNITY: Does that mean amnesty.
GIULIANI: It means earning it. Here's the experience. I said I learn add lot from being mayor of New York city. We had a tremendous amount of crime. We did a survey. We figured out there are about 400,000 illegal or undocumented immigrants in New York city. The impact service deported 1500 a year that. Was the most they could deport. So I figured out I had 398,000. Now how do you handle that? What do you do with it? And then what we would catch drug dealers and criminals we'd turn them over to the immigration and naturalization service and say put them at the head of the line. get rid of the drug dealers and criminals first. They were dealing with somebody's maid and somebody who maybe was teaching at a college and just didn't have the right papers or somebody who was working in a restaurant and-- well that's all an issue. But the drug dealers and the criminals and now the terrorists are an issue. And if you have a law that isn't working, and you have thousands and thousands and millions of people, then the terrorists hide among them. We have to have a law that makes sense. and that's why I think you've got to come up with a solution that says much more security at the border, register people, document them, have english at the end of the line, but then have a system to regularize people as well.
HANNITY: You got a lot of conservatives coming on board. Latest one is George rowe. Let me put up what he said about you. Is that true? Are you ready for that?
GILUIANI: Yeah I'm as ready as anybody could be. I guess maybe more ready than some because I've--I mean I've lived through crisis. September 11th is the obviously biggest one that I've lived through. But being mayor of New York was a crisis a week and emergency every other day. You get use to it. I mean you get use to being able to keep focused, toe take advice, understand that you can't get too excited on any one situation. you got to remain very focused and remain optimistic about the result. And you got to communicate with people.
HANNITY: Let me ask about Iraq. You have been very supportive of the president and the Iraq war. Is there anything you would have done differently? Do you think there's been any mistakes made?
GIULIANI: Sure. The president has explained mistakes made.
HANNITY: If were you the president.
GIULIANI: I think he could go back and as we develop positions and explain things i think it's quite appropriate to explain well I might have done it this way or more troops, I might have done it some other way. But here's reality. We're at war. And when we're at war because they're at war with us. I mean sometimes when you listen to these debates in congress and listen to politicians debating you get the impression the they we're in control of whether we're at war or not. it doesn't matter what we think. They want to come here and kill us. And they did on September 11th. And they did a long time before September 11th. Way back in 1993 they came to this city and killed people. So we've got to put Iraq in the context of a much broader picture than just Iraq. And getting Iraq correctly, in other words, getting stability there is real important. And I support what the president has asked for support to do and what general petraeus has asked for support to do. Not because there's any guarantee it's going to work. There's never a guarantee at war. But if we can come out with a correct solution or better solution that iraq it's going to make the war on terror go better. We got to get beyond iraq.
HANNITY: Have people forgotten?
GIULIANI: It's natural. i mean, you have a terrible attack like September 11th, 2001, right in the aftermath of it there's tremendous unity. We understand that we have to be on offense against terrorists. That we have to make it bipartisan. This isn't about being a democrat or republican, it's about being an American. Now you get further away and that lesson isn't as vivid. and all wars have that happen. This is a difficult thing to do. But we've got to start getting beyond Iraq. We got to be thinking about Iran. We have to think about Syria. We have to be thinking about Pakistan and Afghanistan and making sure that the transition in Afghanistan goes correctly. We have to be ready for the fact that whatever happens in Iraq, success or failure-- success will help in the war on terror. Failure will hurt. But the war is still going on. They want to come here and kill us.
HANNITY: If you are president the baker report recommends taking down with ahmadinejad.
GIULIANI: I thought you almost can't put it up front. The minute you put it up front you give them all the leverage add take all the leverage away from us. That recommendation would have been better delivered secretly. Then you-- then through back channels you find out. Can achieve something with ahmadinejad? Can I achieve something with syria? Right now it doesn't look that way. Better thing to do Iran is to put pressure on them and let them know that we will not accept their being a nuclear power. The nightmare of the cold war was nuclear weapons in the hands of an irrational person. I don't want to live through that nightmare.
HANNITY: We're almost out of time. Who is the bigger Yankee fan, you or Hillary?
GILUIANI: We could do a debate on Yankee trivia and find out. [laughter] .
HANNITY: Your thoughts on Hillary, Barak Obama, John Edwards.
GILUIANI: I think they're 'all worthy people and going to fight it out for the democratic nomination. Right now it looks like Hillary. All you can do is look at polls. Right now she is ahead. But it's long way away. None of these races are over yet.
HANNITY: Senator McCain, Newt Gingrich.
GIULIANI: All good men. I respect all of them. I think I've campaigned with each one of them. I campaigned for mitt when he became governor of Massachusetts. I campaigned many, many times together with senator McCain. He's campaigned for me.
HANNITY: If you get the nomination do you have any doubt you would beat Hillary Clinton?
GIULIANI: I'm in this to win i. have no idea who is going to get the nomination. But you do this because you believe that you can win the nomination of your party then you believe that you are the strongest candidate to win the election for your party.
HANNITY: Name three people you would think of for vice president.
GIULIANI: Can't name vice presidents right now. I just told you three worthy people. Three great men. You can't be thinking about vice president at this point. It's enough to think about how to put this together, how to get it organized, how to get it announced, how to put together together the fundraising, what the major issues are and how to best articulate them to the American people to show leadership and strength. my campaign is going to be about the future. I mean the past is what we have to learn about how to direct America to the future. America to the future. The whole purpose of doing this is because you can make this country better.
HANNITY: As mayor of New York, I can't wait. If you were president it would be interesting. I don't think anyone's seen a press conference until they've seen a mayor Rudy Giuliani press conference.
GIULIANI: I told Tony Blair once it reminds me of the same thing he would go through every week with the question-and-answer period in the parliament. Combative. It means every single day you have to know what the heck is going on. if you don't there are at least two or three members of the press that will make you look like a fool.
HANNITY: Best of luck to you. Thank you for being here.
