Giuliani Defends General Petraeus from Clinton, MoveOn.org
AKRON, Ohio (AP)
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"Hillary Clinton, questioning Gen. (David) Petraeus, said you had to suspend disbelief," Giuliani said after a brief campaign stop at an Akron restaurant. "Why would you say that about an American general?"
Clinton, a U.S. Sen. from New York, appeared skeptical Tuesday of the positive spin Petraeus put on improvements in Iraq, saying, "The reports that you provide to us really require the willing suspension of disbelief."
Giuliani said Petraeus was doing "the best that he can." He also criticized the liberal anti-war group MoveOn.org for running newspaper advertisements that asked "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?"
"I can't imagine why we can't get beyond maligning other people's motives nowadays in politics," said Giuliani, a former New York City mayor.
"There is no reason to do what MoveOn.org or Hillary Clinton have done -- which is to make personal attacks on the general."
Clinton campaign spokesman Isaac Baker responded: "Mayor Giuliani may be content to bury his head in the sand when it comes to ending the war in Iraq, but Sen. Clinton will continue to ask the hard questions in an effort to get our troops home."
Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org, responded to Republican criticisms of the ad with a statement: "We stand by our ad -- every major independent study and many major news organizations cast serious doubt on Petraeus' claims."
Giuliani also had a private fundraising event arranged in Akron but no details were disclosed by his campaign staff.
He arrived in Ohio -- expected to again be a key political battleground in 2008 after clinching President Bush's 2004 re-election -- following a fundraiser earlier in the day in Morgantown, W.Va. He was to travel to Canonsburg, Pa., and Bluffton, S.C., after the Akron stop.
Giuliani spent about 20 minutes greeting luncheon patrons at the restaurant, shaking hands, signing autographs and posing for snapshots. He talked of remaining on offense against Islamic terrorists.
"I think withdrawal, appeasement, the kind of thing the Democratic candidates have been doing, is not the right way to deal with Islamic terrorism," he said.
Mike Tople, 29, a volunteer firefighter from nearby Sharon Township, had the candidate autograph a uniform patch. Beyond Giuliani's reputation for leading New York City after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Tople said he thinks of Giuliani as a moral person. "I like him as a man," Tople said.
Another luncheon guest, Wallace Chambers Jr., 41, who works at the Akron health department laboratory, said he is a Democrat but would wait to see the positions of both party nominees before deciding.
"There needs to be a change (from the Bush administration)," he said. "We'll just have to listen and see and compare ideas."
In a new Quinnipiac University poll, Giuliani led among Republicans surveyed in Florida with 28 percent. Fred Thompson had 17 percent, Mitt Romney 11 percent, John McCain 10 percent and Newt Gingrich 6 percent.
The poll was conducted between Sept. 3-9 and involved random telephone interviews with 1,141 Florida voters. It had an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
