« Previous Entry | Main | Next Entry »

Posted: October 29, 2007 5:26 PM
Giuliani Refocuses Campaign on New Hampshire
Email This

As the first primary date looms - possibly sooner rather than later if New Hampshire decides to move its primary to December - former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is getting his message out on the radio waves and in the
mailboxes of New Hampshire voters, a change of gears after largely focusing on the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday states.

On Monday, Giuliani released a new radio ad in New Hampshire focusing on health care called “Chances.” The minute-long spot stresses consumer choice and market forces. “You and I should be making the decisions about what kind of health care we get with our doctors, not with a government bureaucrat.”

In an interview with WYOO’s Burnie Thompson early Monday, Giuliani took another stab at Democratic front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton’s health care proposal: “It should be the individuals in the system who have control of it, meaning the patient and the doctor, the health care professionals like the doctors, not the health care economists, not the health care bureaucrats, not the Hillary government bureaucrats who are going to run it.”

Giuliani and his wife Judith wrapped up a two-day swing through New Hampshire on Monday with a return trip to the Granite State set for Wednesday and Thursday. If residents don’t get a chance to see the candidate in person, they might receive of the former mayor’s eight campaign mailings or get a call from one of his dozen staffers, according to Politico, as the campaign ramps up spending in the state.

For much of the race thus far, Giuliani’s rival former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has led the polls in the state while Giuliani remained ahead in national polls and many Feb. 5 states.

Over the weekend, Republican candidate Arizona Sen. John McCain told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that it was hard for him to imagine Giuliani as the Republican nominee. “It’s hard for me to accept the fact that we would nominate someone who has fundamental disagreements” with conservatives, McCain said.

In a similar note, Frank Rich of the New York Times questioned Giuliani’s lead of the Republican pack, especially without the support of Christian conservatives. Giuliani placed second to last place finish in the Value Voters Summit straw poll, Rich points out, but the conservative leaders that Republican candidates have historically courted don’t hold the clout they once did.

“These self-promoting values hacks don’t speak for the American mainstream. They don’t speak for the Republican Party. They no longer speak for many evangelical ministers and their flocks. The emperors of morality have in fact had no clothes for some time. Should Rudy Giuliani end up doing a victory dance at the Republican convention, it will be on their graves.”