SALEM, N.H.—Having sat out the Iowa caucuses, Rudy Giuliani returned to New Hampshire Friday to campaign for the primary, declaring he was not veering from the unconventional strategy of focusing on larger, later voting states.
"We are going to do well here. I'm very optimistic. I think our strategy is a good strategy," Giuliani told reporters.
"I said from the very beginning nobody's going to win all these primaries. It's going to be someone's going to win a few, somebody wins a couple more; the real question is, who wins the most and right now we're ahead in more states than anyone else."
Giuliani spent Iowa caucus night in Florida; he placed a distance sixth place in the caucuses, well behind long-shot candidate Ron Paul.
In New Hampshire, Giuliani faces Mike Huckabee, buoyed by a big win in Iowa, John McCain, surging in recent polls here, and Mitt Romney, still the Republican front-runner in New Hampshire despite a second place finish in Iowa.
Giuliani said he would spend the next four days campaigning in New Hampshire, "we always planned to be here," he said. "It's always been our plan.
In remarks to New Hampshire voters however, Giuliani showed he had paid attention to the caucuses and the message that propelled candidates to victory; the word "change" was on Giuliani's lips frequently at two town hall events in southern New Hampshire.
"I know there's a lot of talk about change and change is a good thing; if you don't change you kind of step back, but there's change that's good and there's change that's bad," Giuliani said.
Giuliani then said his platform, for cutting taxes, increasing military forces in Afghanistan, more school choice for parents, and an "offensive" approach to "the Islamic terrorist war against us" represented positive change.
"These are the kinds of changes that we want to make," he said to a crowd of about 70 who gathered at an American Legion Hall in Salem.
In Nashua, Cliff Loverme of Merrimack said he was "bouncing between Rudy Giuliani and John McCain." Loverme asked Giuliani to explain his position on illegal immigration, but said he was confused by Giuliani's proposal for a national identification system and remained undecided.
"Every time I see Rudy, I really like him," he added.
The Nashua town hall was interrupted by an anti-abortion protester who shouted that "a vote for Rudy is a vote for a child killer"
"The blood is on your hands," shouted the man, who identified himself as Joseph Landry, 26, from Florida. The audience of about 150 booed, but Giuliani kept his composure.
"My view on abortion is that abortion is wrong ... but ultimately I also believe that government should not intervene," he said.
Landry later told reporters that he was one of 11 protesters arrested outside Giuliani's Manchester campaign office in December. The protesters, led by national anti-abortion activist Randall Terry, were blocking the door to the office and were arrested on trespassing charges.
