Republican candidates for president gathered in
South Carolina for a Fox News-sponsored debate. Fred Thompson, Mike
Huckabee, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul traded
shots over foreign policy and a possible recession.
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Republican Rudy Giuliani didn't wait to hear how badly he fared in New Hampshire before pressing onward to what he hopes will be friendlier territory.
The former New York mayor quickly thanked his supporters Tuesday night then left for Florida, one of the delegate-rich states central to his risky strategy that put little stock in the traditional roles of Iowa and New Hampshire.
"This is just the beginning. Think of it as the kickoff in what's going to be a very long and very tough game," Giuliani told about 100 supporters in a hotel ballroom. "By the time it's over with, by February 5th, it's going to be clear that we're the nominee of the party."
Mike Huckabee won Iowa; Sen. John McCain of Arizona prevailed in New Hampshire. Giuliani was in a close race with Texas Rep. Ron Paul for fourth place in New Hampshire, but he insisted he was leaving the state with renewed vigor.
Though he all but ignored Iowa, Giuliani invested a fair amount in New Hampshire, with a cluster of visits in the fall and $2.5 million in advertising. At the same time, his underlying strategy has been to focus on later voting states, particularly delegate-rich states like California and Florida.
His support in New Hampshire peaked last spring, just as John McCain's campaign was heading into a serious decline. But in later months McCain's gain appeared to come at Giuliani's expense.
Betting that the field will remain fractured heading into Florida's Jan. 29 contest, the campaign hopes a win there will begin a streak that will carry him through some two dozens states that vote Feb. 5. But he also could become irrelevant if he is eclipsed by the attention paid to the winners of the earlier contests.
So focused was Giuliani on what comes next that he no sooner had thanked his supporters than he asked them to pack their bags.
"We're going to leave in a few minutes for Florida to fight it out there, and I want you to come join us there and help us," he said. "And help us in Connecticut. Help us in New York. Help us in New Jersey."
He said the race remained wide open.
"There's going to be a lot more ups and downs to it, and one thing we can handle is ups and downs. That's what it means to handle a crisis," said Giuliani, who has made his leadership in New York after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks a central theme of his campaign.
Giuliani left New Hampshire before learning of McCain's win. He said he would call the winner later Tuesday.
Iowa is history... now candidates are in New Hampshire for the nation's first primary. There's no underplaying the importance of the outcome in terms of generating momentum and buzz for fundraising. Even Rudy Giuliani, who skipped Iowa, is working hard in New Hampshire.
Rudy Giuliani was content to sit back and watch his two chief rivals criticize each other Sunday, just two days before voters in New Hampshire cast the first primary ballots of the campaign.
Giuliani, who badly trails his rivals in recent polling, refused to level criticism of rivals John McCain or Mitt Romney and came to their defense. Such a soft touch is a counter to how Romney and McCain have engaged in fierce comparisons during the campaign's final days here in New Hampshire.
"I have, as I do with Mitt, I have great respect for John McCain. And in fact John is a personal friend so this campaign for me is not against John McCain or against anyone else," Giuliani told C-SPAN after a house party here in Hollis.
He declined to even say he was running against them. Talking with reporters in Nashua, he said he could see his rivals "running with me."
So as McCain and Romney scuffle, Giuliani has stayed back and let them bloody each other.
"I have great respect for Mitt Romney. I campaigned for Mitt Romney when he ran for governor. I consider him a friend. I think he's accomplished a great deal in business. He's accomplished a great deal as a governor," said Giuliani, who on Sunday picked up the endorsement of the New England Police Benevolent Association in Nashua.
But at his Hollis house party, one voter asked him about his Cabinet's make up. He said such predictions would be presumptuous, but added: "The Cabinet would look like last night's debate -- with one exception."
He didn't specify which rival -- Romney or Texas Rep. Ron Paul -- from his Cabinet, he joked in Nashua with reporters: "I think you know who I was talking about. Come on. That was pretty obvious."
He declined to predict a finish with reporters, saying he would do "the very best I can do. I'm not a handicapper. Every time I try to do that with horses, it doesn't work well. ... Let's see what the results are on Tuesday."
He also declined to explain why he has spent so much time in New Hampshire and yet isn't doing better in the polls.
"My candidacy is an unconventional candidacy. I mean, from the day I started, I was the candidate that couldn't get nominated. The Republican Party wouldn't nominate me. I don't know how often I read those stories back a year ago."
Giuliani has little hope of winning New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary. Recent polls of likely primary voters place him at a distant third -- or worse -- behind McCain and Romney.
Giuliani's campaign has long said it would focus on a strategy that begins in Florida and explodes on Feb. 5, when more than 20 states vote. Giuliani has said the early states lack delegates and don't guarantee a nomination.
He dismissed criticism from Romney for the strategy.
"Mitt has his own struggle. These elections, they go up and down. We're all in a different position at different times. ... The reality is that we sit in a pretty good spot. We're ahead in something like 16 or 18 of the primaries coming up. ... His strategy had been to emphasize two states. Our strategy has been to give a proportionate emphasis to a number of states. Nobody knows if his strategy is going to work. At this point, our strategy looks like it has a good chance of working."
He told a C-SPAN caller that the criticism is part of the campaign.
"If you're asking me if governor Romney is a very qualified person and a person that I admire, the answer to that is yes. Does that mean we don't occasionally criticize each other in the heat of a campaign, of course, I mean that happens," he said. "But I think what you will find is that these Republican candidates have far more that we agree about than we disagree about."
He later pointed to Saturday's night debate when the Republican and Democratic candidates shared a stage.
"Everyone talks about returning civility to politics. I think that was more symbolic -- let's say, that was even more than symbolic. I thought that was a very nice thing. ... Everyone got to shake hands. Even just on an emotional level, it gives you a sense that you do share something in common, even if you have big disagreements over taxes, Iraq, other things. We're all sharing in common this desire to try and serve America, to try and help America. We all think we can do it best. We respect other people who go through what we went through what we go through."
Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani praised rival Mike Huckabee for his win in the Iowa caucuses on Thursday -- a contest Giuliani skipped -- yet insisted his own early-state campaign could win over the long haul.
"I think we're in good shape. We're ahead in maybe 16, 18 of the 29 states that are coming up," the former New York mayor said. "This was the first one. I think it's one that, quite honestly, we didn't expect that we would win. And we didn't put a lot of resources into it. And now we'll move on to the others."
Giuliani holds an early lead in polls in Florida, which conducts its primary Jan. 29, and he hopes a strong showing here will offset poor results in early-voting states.
He said he thinks his early-state strategy will pay off "in that we've paid a lot of attention to states that some other candidates haven't paid much attention to."
"I think our message of being on offense against terrorism, having been tested by crisis, how to handle difficult problems, I think that message will succeed in a number of these primaries," he said.
"I congratulate Mike. I think he's got a really good victory there" in Iowa, Giuliani added.
He was interviewed on MSNBC and CNN.
Earlier, Giuliani spoke to a rally of mostly Cuban-Americans, asking them for their help, votes and support on Jan. 29, in the tradition of another election that turned on the Sunshine State.
"I know how good you are at that because I've seen you pull us through," Giuliani said. "Remember, it's Florida that saved this country for the Republican Party in 2000."
Giuliani is counting on winning the delegate-rich Sunshine State to offset poor showings in early states like Iowa and New Hampshire. Rivals Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and John McCain are focusing on those traditional states.
However, experts have questioned whether Giuliani's campaign can survive a series of early losses, as well as Florida's influence in the nomination process.
The Republican winner in Florida will get fewer delegates to the nominating convention because the state broke national party rules by holding the primary before Feb. 5.
Asked after the rally about his unconventional approach to the nomination, Giuliani said: "Everybody has their own strategy."
"We think this is the one that fits," he added.
Giuliani made no mention of his Republican competition during the rally, which a few hundred people attended. He did, however, take a shots at Hillary Rodham Clinton and her husband's administration.
Referring to her as the leading Democratic candidate, Giuliani paraphrased her approach to taxes like this: "We have to take things from you for the better good."
The crowd booed.
"I have a different philosophy," Giuliani said. "I want to give some things back to you for the common good."
Touting the anti-terrorism theme that defines his campaign, he called for increasing the size of the armed forces, saying the "terrorists' war on us" should be approached from a position of strength.
"We have to be on the offense," Giuliani said. "No defense. We have to be on the offense."
Giuliani, who leads in polls among Floridians, said the Cuban-American community was an example for what good can come of transitioning to a democratic society.
"Look at what you've achieved in such a short period of time. Look what freedom can do," Giuliani said. "The same thing can happen in the Middle East."
--Associated Press
Republican Rudy Giuliani defended his plan to expand the U.S. military Thursday, telling skeptical voters that he could do so while keeping government spending in check.
Several workers at Segway Inc. questioned the former New York mayor about his plan to add 10 new brigades to the Army and provide more equipment and weapons to other branches of the military.
After listening to Giuliani's stump speech in which he heavily emphasizes his commitment to lowering taxes, Marie Yanish asked him to "speak a little bit about the apparent conflict between lowering taxes and increasing the military budget."
Giuliani told her he would find taxes that would produce more revenue at lower rates. He said that strategy worked when he was mayor because he knew how to analyze a situation and take risks.
"One's not a tradeoff for the other," he said.
Another voter asked Giuliani what spending he would cut to make up for the increase in the military budget. He explained his plan to trim the federal workforce by not replacing workers who retire and to ask most federal agencies to scale back their budgets.
"It's essentially the same model I followed as mayor of New York City. I increased police, because we had a big crime problem. So I would increase the military, because we have a problem of terrorist threats," he said. "I also increased teachers ... but I reduced everything else."
Giuliani returned to his lower taxes theme when Bill Bleem, Segway's information technology director, asked Giuliani how he would get members of Congress to work with each other and the president.
"On the things where you really have to get things done and you don't have a majority, the only way the president can do it is go to the American people and get the American people on your side," he said. "Get the American people to believe that we need to lower taxes. Get them to understand that tax reduction is not about helping the rich. Tax reduction is about helping the growth of the entire economy."
Bleem wasn't impressed with the answer. He said he has voted for Republicans in the last two elections but probably will vote for a Democrat this time.
"He ducked it," he said. "We need a president who can pull (Congress) together or he accomplishes nothing."
Giuliani, who was heading to Florida later Thursday, said he didn't regret his decision to largely skip the Iowa caucus.
"The reason for it is we see this as a different kind of election. We've never had 29 primary and caucuses in one month," he told reporters. "This is extraordinary. Something different is going to win this election. We hope it's our different strategy that wins it. And we're confident it will."
Asked about polls that show his support dropping in New Hampshire, Giuliani said he is in good shape considering the amount of money Romney has spent there and the amount of time McCain has spent.
"Given our proportionate approach ... I think we're doing pretty well and I think in these last few days we're going to see a strong finish."
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As Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney started a three-day, 17-stop blitz through Iowa before tomorrow's pivotal nominating caucuses, rivals Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul took time off from campaigning.
"The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is a tragic event for Pakistan and for democracy in Pakistan. Her murderers must be brought to justice and Pakistan must continue the path back to democracy and the rule of law. Her death is a reminder that terrorism anywhere -- whether in New York, London, Tel-Aviv or Rawalpindi -- is an enemy of freedom. We must redouble our efforts to win the Terrorists' War on Us."
--Rudy Giuliani, Republican candidate for president
Rudy's Giuliani's personal physician released this statement:
I have been Rudy Giuliani's personal physician for more than seven years.
I was informed late Wednesday evening that Mr. Giuliani was suffering from a significant headache and fatigue. These symptoms can be described as possibly "flu-like."
As Mr. Giuliani's personal physician, I stayed in contact with the doctors at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis throughout the course of the evening. Because of the significant headache, it was important to have as much information as possible and err on the side of caution.
Mr. Giuliani underwent the following tests at Barnes-Jewish Hospital: CT-MRI of the brain, ultrasound of the carotid arteries, and spinal fluid evaluation. These tests all came back normal.
Furthermore, a PSA taken within the past month was negligible or undetectable, and routine laboratory tests were normal. Upon returning to New York City, Mr. Giuliani came to me for an examination and a further test, a transesophageal echocardiogram, which was normal. I confirmed there was no change in his health status.
Mr. Giuliani was not prescribed any medication and I recommended that he lighten his schedule only for a few days.
It is my medical opinion that Rudy Giuliani is in very good health.
Valentin Fuster, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
