February 10, 2007
Rudy, Live: Continues Emphasizing That He's In
SACRAMENTO -- Ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani shortened his WH ;08 announcement plans Saturday when he was asked in Sacramento, CA, if he seriously was determined to mount an '08 run.
"Yes, I am committed," Giuliani said to reporters after his 44-minute keynote speech Saturday afternoon at the CA GOP convo. Pressed in the short post-keynote press conference about when he will make a formal announcement, Giuliani jokingly said, "If you go back to my speech, I think I may have."
Giuliani's keynote speech included 18 references to the Golden State's governor-turned-president.
"I worked for Ronald Reagan."
"...Ronald Reagan is one of my heroes."
"Ronald Reagan embodied optimism."
Giuliani's almost Romney-esque attachment to the Gipper's legacy did not diminish the ability of America's favorite mayor to charm a banquet audience including some California conservatives exasperated over Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's universal health care proposal.
Giuliani did not mention abortion or other issues dividing him from the party's right wing, and his generic comments on improving health care included no specific references to Schwarzenegger's plans. His keynote's attempt at playing the God card seemed lukewarm when he said that American ideas are, "ideas that come from God," prompting applause only from about only one-third of the ballroom's 800-plus people.
By contrast Giuliani's support-our-troops line received a long, ballroom-wide standing ovation. This was followed by more stand-up applause when he slammed the Senate's non-binding resolution fight of the Iraq troop surge. "What we pay people in Washington to do is to make decisions! They can't decide this, they can't decide that," he declared.
Sources said Giuliani's private Friday night convention meeting with about 30 Republican state Assembly members found some legislators skeptical of his views on issues such as gun control and immigration. But he repeated those views in his keynote and before reporters, including his gun control platform emphasizing urban crime weapons while leaving sports hunters alone, ("I would not interfere with that,"). He sees immigration as a national security issue and would not support laws which deport and divide family members. ("You have got to deal with the people who are here"). But Arizona Minutemen likely will find little comfort in Giuliani's call for, "a highly technological" border fence rather than their pleas for an actual wall.
Schwarzenegger received some blowback from California conservatives opposed to his health care ambitions. Los Angeles accountant and Bush-Cheney '04 "Pioneer" fundraiser Bruce Bialosky said the Friday night audience for Schwarzenegger's dinner speech was, "way down. The audience was very tepid."
But such grumbling did not affect Giuliani, whose keynote speech was welcomed. '02 GOP CA GOV nominee Bill Simon introduced Giuliani and also stood off to the side at his press conference. Giuliani appeared in TV ads for Simon in that '02 campaign.
Since by his own estimate he has visited California, "about 23 times in the last year or two," Giuliani embraced the possibility the state's primary could move to Feb. 5, saying, "If California does it, it changes the whole nature of the primary."
Giuliani also spoke more boldly of his presidential apsirations Saturday such as telling reporters that when he met last week with with naval officers and sailors in San Diego. He said he told them, "I'm not the president, you don't have to tell me what I want to hear. I'd like to be be the president and then you will have to tell me what I want to hear." [DAVID FINNIGAN]
Finnigan is a freelance reporter based in California
Posted at 08:23 PM
Comments
Mark Giuliani's words and don't let anyone forget them:
http://www.conservativetruth.org/article.php?id=2460. Right after the 9-11 ttacks on America, America’s Mayor, Rudy Giuliani said to the New York City Police Commissioner,
"Thank God George Bush is President!!”
Vigilante | 02.11.07 11:25 AM
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What a great speech. And with some humor too.
Giuliani is now clearly the frontrunner of both the Democrats and Republicans.
My only hope is that the Libertarian Party will endorse him. He is clearly the most viable Libertarian candidate ever; fiscally conservative/socially tolerant and Pro-Defense.
Eric Dondero, CEO
MainstreamLibertarian.com
Eric Dondero | 02.11.07 01:17 PM
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