Giuliani slams Democrats, the press
By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff
MINNEAPOLIS -- Assuming the role of Republican rottweiler, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani ripped the Democratic ticket and the news media in remarks before his home state delegation this afternoon, offering a preview for his later keynote address to the Republican National Convention.
Giuliani lavished praise on the party's presumptive nominee, John McCain, and his running mate, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, but he was scornful and sarcastic in his criticisms of the Democratic ticket of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. In vintage Giuliani fashion, the failed presidential candidate was also contemptuous of the news media with which he has battled for two decades.
Obama, Giuliani said "is the least experienced [presidential nominee] in the last hundred years. He was a community organizer ... What do they do? .. Then he was in the Chicago legislature, no the Illinois legislature, no the Chicago machine ... [The Democrats] have got their experience at the bottom [of the ticket] ... Joe Biden, Joe's got a lot of experience which he'll tell you about ...He's got a lot of experience talking ... talking ... talking," Giuliani said at a luncheon at the New York delegation's hotel.
(Biden issued perhaps the most memorable put-down of Giuliani's presidential candidacy. In a televised debate last October, Biden remarked: "I mean, think about it! Rudy Giuliani. There's only three things he mentions in a sentence -- a noun, a verb, and 9/11. There's nothing else! There's nothing else! And I mean this sincerely. He's genuinely not qualified to be president.")
As a state senator, Obama had "an interesting record," Giuliani said, noting that Obama voted "'present' almost 130 times. I don't remember having that vote when I was mayor of New York City ... You're supposed to make a decision."
Obama and others have said voting present was a common practice in the Illinois legislature, often as partisan strategy or to express objections to portions of bills he would otherwise support.
Giuliani also criticized Obama and Biden for opposing the successful troop surge last year in Iraq, of which McCain was the leading proponent. Of the Iraq invasion, Giuliani said: "I can't figure out for the life of me how the Democrats think it was a mistake."
McCain and Biden both voted in favor of the Iraq war resolution, which Obama opposed in a speech while still an Illinois lawmaker. Biden later became a harsh critic of the conduct of the war.
Giuliani praised McCain as a principled man, ready to be commander in chief, and vigorously defended Palin, a little-known figure on the national political stage who is now the subject of intense news media scrutiny. Giuliani praised her as a "doer" who cut taxes and spending and was fearless in taking on corrupt officials within her own party.
But he saved his most acerbic criticism for the media, which he accused of launching "unrelenting" and "vicious" attacks on Palin.
"I've never seen an attack like that, even by New York City standards," Giuliani said. "It's below the standards of journalism," he said, smirking and pausing before repeating the phrase slowly in a lower voice ... "the standards ... of journalism."
"What do her children have to do with what kind of vice president she is going to make?" Giuliani asked, apparently referring to reports that followed a statement Palin issued saying that her 17-year-old unwed daughter is pregnant and plans to marry the father.
Giuliani's own presidential candidacy was rocked periodically by reports of his messy personal life that includes three marriages, a well-publicized extramarital affair during his second marriage, and his strained relationship with his two children from that marriage.
Why don't you say something sensible...you are so stupid this country deserves YOU!!!! What a foolish country if this kind of rhetoric wins any credibility...how about some proper debate instead of slinging mud????
Mr. Giuliani - I'm hearing more from you about Obama and why he is not qualified rather than why we should vote for John McCain. You won't win my vote by negatively talking about Obama. I'm tired of listening to you try to bring Obama down.
Giuliani may be the saddest politician I have seen speak yet. Little, sad, jealous man that is so out of touch with the concepts of hope and change and.... the truth. The entire republican convention seems like an angry, uneducated, backwards mob. Such a contrast to the organization and hope for our nation presented in the democratic convention last week. I can't believe that even the republicans would put such a man on the stage as their representative.
Heide, you weren't listening, obviously. He, and the most of the other speakers, spoke quite often and quite articulately about the steps McCain will take once he is in the White House. He also addressed, as you pointed out, why Obama is not qualified -- a question that Dems keep avoiding over and over and over again.
Guiliani stand for marriage, parenthood, or work on YOUR MORALS: something substancial other than time to stand behind the podium. cduran
i don't care if a man is 'following orders', like a good Nazi, or one just stuck with it. the fact the NVA didn't simply kill a killer of thousands is amazing---he's alive and well---but his victims in an illegal war? ashes. burned alive or blown apart. yet my daughter just returned from 'The Nam', and found the Vietnamese very hospitable,
with no vengeance you still see visiting Tokyo---if McCain was an honest man, he could have simply signed a confession of 'war-criminal'---the truth---don't you people know? the viets were trained by us, to stop the 'Japs'---after WWII free elections were held---Ho won---we jump in and found a 'puppet' Diem guv. we ended up losing 57K---but killed 1,000,000+ Viets, and 'destabilized' Cambodia, another 2,000,000 dead---for any man to take pride in such is sick.
The only reason I'm visiting this site is to find out who would advertise on such a slanted,partisan and government dependent crutch.You are sad and so are your
"on the take" followers.
Most people in this country are smart enough to see through this garbage. Those who have seen both conventions can distinguish the negative tone this convention has taken this far. When you can't defend the issues attack the person, it worked wonders for the Bush/Cheney ticket however it will not work this time.
I am so sick of the Liberal left wing looneys. If you guys hate America so bad please go live somewhere else and you will then see how good you have it. McCain is a good man. I am not Republican or Democrate. I vote for the one that will help me and my country. The democrates are against everything the constitution and the bible stands for. So they will have to answer when the time comes to the man upsstairs.
I watched Rudy last night and felt that he was having an identity crisis. Does he think he's David Letterman? I was fixated on his teeth, which make him look more and more like a bald woodchuck. Among his irritating qualities his finger pointing drove me insane - I wish he would poke his own eye out as he waves that thing around. All in all, exactly what I expected. Now he can crawl back into his hole until the next election, unless he wants to pursue bad stand-up at truck stops in Alabama.
Go Rudy! He was so right on.... I am absolutely dumbfounded by the astonishing premise that this man, while enormously charismatic, is in any way qualified to assume the world's most important job. The Globe's typically snide, half-truth ridden article exemplifies why so many of us have cancelled our subscriptions.
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