Giuliani Offers Pledge Of Fiscal Restraint, A Vow to Beat Clinton
GOP Front-Runner Plays Down Social Issues
By Perry Bacon Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 13, 2007; A05
ROCK HILL, S.C., Oct. 12 -- Speaking to a Republican club here, former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani offered his own version of what the party should stand for: strong national security, fiscal conservatism and beating Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.). He never mentioned abortion, talking only about unspecified "differences" he might have with people in the room.
"When people around the country tell me I'm not conservative enough, will you please go back and read the New York Times editorials?" he told a crowd Thursday night in this town near the North Carolina border, drawing loud applause as he noted the criticism he took for trying to reduce the welfare rolls in New York.
While the presidential primary calendar is still in flux, South Carolina's GOP primary will likely be scheduled for Jan. 19, making it the first state to vote after the balloting in Iowa, New Hampshire and Michigan. And because it will be the first primary in the South, it will serve as an early test for Giuliani. Can an abortion rights supporter from the Northeast succeed in a party that is increasingly based in the South, where abortion continues to be a big issue with many Republican voters? Exit polls during the 2000 South Carolina primary showed that one-third of the state's Republicans considered themselves part of the "religious right" and that 58 percent said abortion should be illegal in most cases.
And when former Wisconsin governor Tommy G. Thompson, who briefly ran for the nomination, endorsed his former rival at an event in Charleston on Friday, he directly addressed the issue.
"People say, 'Well, he's not conservative enough,' " Thompson said. "I say . . . he transformed the city of New York. He reduced taxes. He cut spending."
Giuliani aides plan to compete aggressively in Iowa and New Hampshire but say their first must-win state will be Florida, whose primary is scheduled for Jan. 29.
A win in the Sunshine State, in turn, could create momentum heading into Feb. 5, when a mega-primary featuring delegate-rich states such as New York, New Jersey and California vote and the ex-mayor's nationwide fame gained in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, could be a huge asset.
Campaigning in the South, Giuliani routinely jokes about the scarcity of Republicans in New York City, depicting it as crime-ridden before he took office, part of his argument that, while some GOP voters may disagree with his ideas, it is hard to argue with his results.
At a crowded ice cream parlor in conservative Greenville, Giuliani told reporters he is polling stronger among conservatives than any of the other candidates and marveled at the "big surprise" his performance in the state is providing. Several surveys in the state have shown the former mayor first or just behind former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.).
In Rock Hill, Giuliani skipped discussion of moral issues, instead stressing that "from California to New York . . . the things that hold us together as a party are a strong national defense and a strong national economy."
Giuliani also gleefully took up one of his favorite tactics on the campaign trail: Hillary Clinton-bashing, which he has essentially made the third plank of his brand of conservatism in lieu of orthodoxy on social issues.
In the middle of his speech, Giuliani reached into his pocket, declaring to the crowd, "I have been keeping a list: This is my Hillary list."
Without actually consulting the sheet, Giuliani eagerly reeled off and ridiculed proposals the Democratic front-runner offered this week as she sought to focus on the middle class, including a tax credit for parents paying college tuition and matching the first $1,000 Americans put in 401(k) plans.
He then turned to a proposal Clinton floated late last month, modeled on a program in Britain, in which children would be given $5,000 at birth that they could spend when they are older, which some advocates tout as an anti-poverty program.
"Remember the Hillary baby bonds," Giuliani said, laughing at the notion. "We pointed out in strong terms how irresponsible this was. . . . She gave them up in three or four days."
Clinton has said the bonds were not a specific proposal she was offering. But while all the Republican contenders use Clinton as a punching bag, Giuliani is unmatched in his focus on his home-state rival.
Giuliani also trotted out another stump tactic that seemed to thrill the audience of Republicans, using a dream he said he has had "at least five times" to mock the Democratic White House contenders. In the dream, he said, the three leading Democratic candidates, Clinton, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) and former senator John Edwards (N.C.) are flying on a plane together to France, where they planned to get "failed" ideas on public policy that the ex-mayor said would transform America into a socialist country. At the same time, he said, new French President Nicolas Sarkozy is flying to the United States to bring "our quintessential American principles" back to his nation.
And while he avoids discussions of social issues whenever possible, he goes further than many of the other Republican contenders in embracing other conservative touchstones.
President Bush, even when he had a higher standing with the public, quickly gave up touting private school vouchers; Giuliani mentions them frequently on the stump, to applause. Giuliani proudly talks about his work on issues that unite economic and social conservatives, such as reducing crime and the number of people on welfare, both of which had huge drops when he was New York's mayor. Giuliani's critics dispute whether that was a result of Giuliani's efforts, President Bill Clinton's work in Washington or economic growth that neither had much control over.
On the Iraq war, Giuliani often sounds more hawkish than Bush, a fact likely to play well in the South. At the ice cream shop, where Giuliani gave a five-minute address assailing Hillary Clinton and then spent more than 30 minutes shaking hands, one woman shouted repeatedly, "How will you get the troops home?" Giuliani, who has gone through something of a personality transformation from the tempestuous mayor in the 1990s to the sunny candidate this year, at first tried to ignore the woman. Then, without turning toward her, he smiled and said his goal is to get the troops out of Iraq, but after "success."
"How about the goal of the United States of America in Iraq is victory," he said later, to loud applause in the Rock Hill speech. "How about success defined as an Iraq that is stable and will act as an ally for us . . . then we withdraw the troops. . . . The president used this expression and I wish he would use it more: 'return on success.' They should be brought home on success."
Giuliani still has some work to do. Some social conservatives are still wary of the party's front-runner.
"From a fiscal perspective, he's done fine, but from the social side I have problems with him," said Randy Page, a GOP activist who is on the board of the Palmetto Family Council, a major conservative group in South Carolina. "I would be very uncomfortable with him" as the nominee.
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The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.
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