Rudy, Live: Thoughts On Romney And Gore
SANTA CLARA, CA -- Rudy Giuliani made a few diplomatic jabs Monday at his '08 opponents including Mitt Romney on the eve of the ex-MA GOV's formal campaign start Tuesday in Dearborn, MI.
Giuliani, to reporters at a windy press conference after his speech before about 500 Silicon Valley business executives: "Governor Romney is a good friend, he was somebody I campaigned for very, very hard when he ran for governor of Massachusetts, helped him get elected. I don't think I'll be campaigning for him for the Republican nomination this time. I have another candidate that I think is probably going to be better, but I really wish him well. He's a very, very good man."
Giuliani's 29-minute Hyatt Regency speech before a venture capitalist crowd saw him make 13 references to Winston Churchill (plus another seven to Ronald Reagan) and that was fitting since the event was sponsored by Silicon Valley's bi-partisan Churchill Club speakers forum. The luncheon's typically Northern California mix of Dems, indies and GOPers found Giuliani very comfortable working a broad audience similar to the politically mixed crowds he knew as New York's mayor: he began his speech with some laughs via his throaty, Marlon Brando/Godfather voice expressing his pleasure at this, "meeting of the families from the different parts of California."
When asked by the luncheon host during the Q-and-A about the qualities of his potential subway series rival Hillary Clinton, Guiliani politely demurred: "I would not be the best source of describing Senator Clinton...the most objective source...I'm not sure she'll be the candidate."
Giuliani also pledged his fidelity to an '08 run: "I'm 100% committed. That official part, I still have to do a formal announcement but we'll figure out how to do that."
The onetime Reagan-era, Mafia-busting federal prosecutor said that as a 9/11-tested government executive, he is, "probably much more experienced with terrorism than anyone else running, except maybe John McCain."
But lacking street credibility for him is Al Gore's global warming documentary, "An Inconvient Truth," which Giuliani found thick with complaints but lacking real-world solutions or questioning of special interest groups blocking alternative energy developments like wind and solar power. Giuliani: "I did not detect in the movie the same zeal to take on those special interests in explaining the problem."
His California audience laughed heartily after Giuliani said terrorism festers in slow-to-develop Middle Eastern countries where women still can be stoned, prompting him to pause and clarify to the medical marijuana-tolerant crowd, "And by stoned I mean hit with rocks."
In this Silicon Valley venue Giuliani expressed his views on immigration reform with seemingly a notch less tension than his speech last Saturday in Sacramento at the CA GOP convo, where some party conservatives expect much harder calls for border closings.
"How do we keep this country open?" he said Monday, before reminding the audience of the expected U.S. population drop in 10 years. Giuliani also critiqued Western Europe's "socialized medicine" and called for solutions that preserve American health care's "genius" based on health care industry competition.
Giuliani also repeated his absolute support for California moving its primary to next Feb. 5;
"California is a state that you could regard as a microcosm of the U.S. We're all (presidential candidates) gonna have to contest in a place that's kind of similar to what we're eventually gonna have to do, which is to run in the entire country." [DAVID FINNIGAN]
David Finnigan is a freelance journalist based in California
