Free Republic

Rudy Giuliani may have made a great mistake by not campaigning in New Hampshire, Nevada, Iowa and South Carolina. But between Rudy Giuliani (and, for that matter, Mitt Romney) on the one hand and John McCain on the other, there is little question as to who more embodies mainstream conservative and Republican principles. But Giuliani is not merely more of a conservative than John McCain. In fact, if it is Ronald Reagan that Republicans want, Giuliani is extraordinarily close to that venerated man. Ronald Reagan stood for two great beliefs: that big government is a big problem for a free...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani is trailing in the race for the Republican presidential nomination even on his home turf of New York state, a new poll showed on Monday. The WNBC/Marist poll ahead of the February 5 primaries in New York showed 34 percent of registered Republicans support John McCain, compared to 23 percent for Giuliani. Among Republicans likely to vote, McCain kept his 34 percent support, while Giuliani was tied in second place with Mitt Romney at 19 percent. McCain's campaign has been boosted by wins in New Hampshire and South Carolina...

About a dozen senior campaign staffers for Rudy Giuliani are foregoing their January paychecks, aides said Friday, a sign of possible money trouble for the Republican presidential candidate. "We have enough money, but we could always use more money,'' contended Mike DuHaime, Giuliani's campaign manager and one of those who now is working for free. "We want to make sure we have enough to win.'' At the end of December, he said the campaign had $11.5 million cash on hand, $7 million of which can be used for the primary. He disputed the notion of a cash-strapped campaign, and said...

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa - Giuliani's support here has plummeted into single digits....according to new surveys released yesterday. A Reuters poll shows the ex-mayor capturing just 8% of the vote - tied for fourth place with Thompson and Ron Paul. An MSNBC poll shows Giuliani tied with Paul for fifth place with a measly 5% of the vote - near the bottom of the pack. "Where has he been? He stopped showing up," said conservative activist Jamie Johnson, who runs a radio station. Giuliani did not air a single TV ad in Iowa, and his 15 trips here were far...

HAMPTON, N.H. — Rudolph W. Giuliani has entered a turbulent period in his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, marked by what his aides acknowledge are missteps, sharp shifts in strategy and evidence that reports about his personal life have hurt his national standing. A $3 million investment in radio and television advertising in New Hampshire, a belated effort to become competitive in this state, is now viewed by the campaign as a largely wasted expenditure. A Boston Globe poll published Sunday found that support for Mr. Giuliani had dropped in New Hampshire over the past month, even before any...

Here's why I support Giuliani, and it has nothing to do with his response to September 11: Rudy Giuliani eliminated street crime in New York City. The conventional wisdom said it couldn't be done, and the reasons are suspiciously similar to what the same bloviators say about the war against Islamofascism today: 1. There actually isn't a problem; if you think it's a problem, you're a racist. 2. Okay, there is a problem, but it's because of white racism; to try to eradicate the problem using barbaric force without solving the root causes is useless. 3. Okay, force can in...

A few years back, a man named Russell Harding held a City Hall patronage job that came with a government credit card, which he used to steal more than $250,000. Crooks happen. What kept Mr. Harding in thievery for three years was that the city government, led by his patron, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, slammed the door on the one person who sought the Harding credit card records, a reporter with The Village Voice who filed freedom of information requests. These requests were stalled until the next mayor took office and released the documents. Before long, Mr. Harding was packed...

Okay, so I'm not perfect. But I get results. That's the soft-selling pitch of Rudy Giuliani's first presidential TV ad, which will begin airing in New Hampshire Thursday, weeks after some of his Republican rivals hit Granite State airwaves. The 60-second spot dwells on Giuliani's pre-9/11 success in driving down crime and welfare rolls as mayor. But in a veiled nod to 9/11 - as well as, perhaps, his messy personal life - Giuliani argues he has faced countless trials and still gotten results. "I've been tested in a way in which the American people can look to me," Giuliani...

By Christopher Cook Let's face it folks, the country is in a weird mood right now. The left's incessant, squalling permatantrumâ„¢ has made people unhappy, jittery, and willing to consider hating whoever and whatever the left hates. That means the GOP. So, how does this anti-GOP mood play out in 2008?It may all depend on one thing: Michael Bloomberg. There were some rumors a while back that he might make a third party run for the presidency, and in my view, that would likely spell doom for the GOP. Here's how:He's an independent, which means he could capitalize on the...

Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman said Thursday he's backing Rudy Giuliani for president, throwing his support behind a fellow moderate Republican and former mayor. "The shared vision as mayor of getting things done, tied in with his strong stance on security, Rudy gets that," Coleman told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Thursday. "So you tie those two together and it's a pretty powerful combination." Coleman also called Giuliani "ultimately electable," a pitch that Giuliani has made throughout the campaign. The two men got to know each other when Coleman was mayor of St. Paul, Minn., and Giuliani was mayor...

You wouldn't know it from reading the papers, but the favorite to win the Republican presidential nomination is a confirmed right-winger. On issues such as free speech and religion, secrecy and due process, civil rights and civil liberties, pornography and democracy, this moralist and self-styled lawman has exhibited all the key hallmarks of Bush-era conservatism. That candidate is Rudolph W. Giuliani. As any New Yorker can tell you, the last word anyone in the 1990s would have attached to the brash, furniture- breaking mayor was "liberal" -- and the second-to-last was "moderate." With his take-many-prisoners approach to crime and his...

Starting last fall, when Giuliani first called Bill Simon and said he was running for president, Simon, 56, has been more responsible than anyone for Giuliani's policy education, and he has been the agent charged with managing the sometimes eager, sometimes awkward relationship between the former mayor of a liberal city and the conservative establishment. Well before Giuliani said publicly that he would be a candidate, Simon put him through a rolling seminar that those in the campaign called Simon University, bringing in thinkers to brief Giuliani on key issues. The result is that though many of Giuliani's campaign operatives...

Giuliani Tries to Reassure Religious Conservatives Worried About His Front-Runner StatusRudy Giuliani told religious conservatives Saturday they should neither fear him for his stand on issues such as abortion nor expect he would change purely for political advantage. The Republican presidential candidate cast himself as an imperfect man who has sought guidance through prayer. In a 40-minute speech received with polite applause, the former New York mayor tried to reach out to social conservatives. He said they share common ground and he invoked, as he often does, Ronald Reagan's admonition that "my 80 percent friend is not my 20 percent...

After being virtually tied with Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for several months, Republican contender Rudy Giuliani now leads Clinton up 47% to 40% in the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. In the match-up of the frontrunners, this result marks a significant shift. For the last three months the two frontrunners have never been further apart than three percentage points. Last month, Giuliani and Clinton were separated by just a single point.

DERRY, N.H. (AP) - Republican Rudy Giuliani said Thursday that people should "leave my family alone" when asked by a New Hampshire woman why the presidential candidate should expect loyalty from voters when he doesn't get it from his children. Answering questions at a town-hall meeting, Giuliani was asked why he should expect loyalty from GOP voters when his children aren't backing him. "I love my family very, very much and will do anything for them. There are complexities in every family in America," Giuliani said calmly and quietly. "The best thing I can say is kind of, 'leave my...

The question today is whether I have seriously underestimated Rudy Giuliani's chances of winning the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. There is little need to go through the logic that was employed to relegate Giuliani's campaign to the dustbin of history. But it took into account his stands on social and cultural issues such as abortion, guns, and gay rights, his checkered personal life, and his promotion of Bernard Kerik, first to be New York City's police commissioner and later as a prospective secretary of Homeland Security. Then there was the question of whether a former big-city, Northeastern mayor is still...

Last week, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Senator John McCain both gained support in the race for the GOP nomination. This week, the top four contenders all lost ground. But, through it all, Giuliani remains on top with a double digit lead.The latest Rasmussen Reports national poll shows Giuliani with 28%, thirteen points more than McCain’s total of 15%. Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson remains undeclared but in third place with 12% support. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney remains slightly behind Thompson at 10%. The stability in the GOP competition stands in stark contrast to...

Littwin: Giuliani soft-pedals own positions SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Conventional wisdom can't always be wrong. Therefore, even before I got to South Carolina, I didn't see how basically pro-choice, pro-gun-control, pro-gay rights, pro-illegal immigrant Rudy Giuliani could win the Republican primary here. Now that I'm here, I still don't see how... *snip* His biggest applause line Saturday came when discussing immigration and how anyone who becomes a citizen needs to read and write and speak English. On the same day, there's a story in The New York Times about Giuliani's long support for immigration rights, including those of illegal immigrants. You...

As the violence in Iraq continues despite greater troop presence, Democratic strategists see Republican candidates facing an increasingly daunting task of keeping the White House after 2008. Most vulnerable, insiders say, is John McCain, the staunchest supporter of the war among GOP candidates. Once seen as the inevitable GOP nominee, his campaign is faltering badly. While plenty believe he'll turn his luck around--his campaign staff is stocked with former Bush campaign people--others see it as nearly finished. "The general feeling around town is that McCain is done," says a strategist with a top Democratic consulting firm. "And if any Republican...

April 23, 2007 Giuliani: Put More States In Play, Or Else We'll Use We've heard Giuliani advisers make this argument, but we've never heard it from the candidate himself. Interviewed this a.m. on the Imus substitute on MSNBC, Giuliani said "From a political point of view, I probably have the best chance of putting states like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Washington, Oregon, California in play. And as a Republicans, if we don't put those states in play next time ... we may see a Democratic president." Pennsylvania and New Jersey are realistic. California, Oregon and Washington are second-tier....