Rudy Guiliani, Wed. Jan 2, 2008

Guiliani is shorter than I thought he'd be.



I went up to a small American Legion building to see Rudy this evening. There was a fair bit of media:



I talked to a nice man from Auburn (hi Everett!) while we waited for the main attraction. The introducer showed the latest Guiliani ad, about 9/11, comparing our response to how the US handled WWII (don't mess with democracy, because we may disagree with each other, but we come together as a strong nation when threatened). When Rudy (I'm just calling him as his banners and signs do... "RUDY08") came in, he gave a bit of a speech, mostly about the war on terror and how to handle it, then answered some questions, a pretty standard format.

He began by thanking his worker-bees. Then he talks about his 12 commitments, and the 1st is to keep America on the offense against terrorism. He thinks its an important issue of the campaign and of today. We didn't ask for this, and it's an external threat, but here it is and we need to stand up tyrants and terrorists.

In our history, we've had times where we didn't see the threats coming. We need to learn from history. We need to have strength in the face of threats against us.

We need a strong military. Even stronger than we have now. They need to be able to face two challenges: 1) Islamic terrorists around the world 2) any nation that might challeng us (makes a reference to the cold war and how we basically "won" by outspending the USSR on military). We want to keep countries like China on "a peaceful rise".

We need to make up for the mistake in the '90's that Clinton did. The Peace Dividend. This cut the military... reductions in size, preparedness, cuts in intelligence. We've not made up for it yet. We should increase the Army by at least 10 brigades, the Marines should get up to 200,000 or more, the Air Force needs to have modern fighters, Navy 300+ ships, and we need to support the Coast Guard, who are now a main branch of homeland security. And Homeland Security really is a new concept for us, isnt' it?

We need to, in this country, set objectives and accomplish them. For Iraq, the goal is to have a stable country that is an ally. The Democratic plan of withdrawal would be a setback. We need to make sure Iran does not become a nuclear power. We need to complete the work of 2001/2002 in Afghanistan. We should increase the troops there (probably double them), and generally put more emphasis there. Why? Because we need to make sure Al Qaeda and the Taliban do not reimerge. Also, fixing Afghanistan will help with the stability in Pakistan. We need to be sure that Pakistan remains stable and moves toward democracy. The people that killed Bhutto were not just assassinating her, they were trying to thwart democracy.

We need to find out about attacks before they occur, and this means supporting the police. The police and fire fighters are the first responders to terrorist attacks, and the police also need to be "first preventers", being aware of suspicious activity.

We need to win this war on the power of our ideas. Our ideas are superior... freedom, choosing people who govern us, respect for women, human rights, life... This is not a war about boundary or territory. It's a war about ideas, and the ideas that the terrorists have perverted. What we stand for is in direct conflict to what they believe. The essense of this example is the freedom of religion, it's what our country was founded on [talks about history a bit].

We need to be open to business and cultural exchange with the middle east. We need to show them that we don't have narrow thinking about such things.

In NYC on 9/11, I told the city not to blame a specific ethnic/religious group. If we fall into that trap, we'd be practicing what we detest. We need to learn to reach out. We need to find commonalities. We have a lot in common as people!

America is not a country that likes war. We only do it if we are under attack or perceive a threat (then we'll do it preemptively). But America isn't about war, we're a country who wants to sell you something!

We need to show them that we are about greatness, love... we want to get past the grievances and move on to constructive engagements [talks about history again, building up with countries we formerly had conflict with].

Back to the cold war, when I saw that Soviets were buying US jeans, McDonalds, and Coke, he knew we were about to win. Human beings are all similar and we have to work on that commonality.

This issue is just 1 of his 12 commitments, but it is the topic for today. Of course he has things on immigration, health care, education... But now it's time for questions.

Q: Surge in Afghanistan. Is it just a police mission or an offensive method?
A: Get rid of them [Taliban and Al Qaeda]. Of course I'd defer to the defense experts for exactly how that would happen, but we need to root them out. This is based on reports that they've reimerged. And just like Iraq, Afghanistan needs to be stable and an ally, particularly with what's happening in Pakistan.

Q followup: I'm concerned about policing there
A: I think the military needs to have a hybrid force, trained in reestablishing civil societies. The success in Iraq is 2003 is probably why Iran stopped their Nuke program. We need to learn from our mistakes [he says this alot]. For example, the surge in Iraq is working better than anyone thought, even the Dems admit that. And it's partly because we gained so much knowledge and learned from it.

Q: What's the difference between you and Sen. McCain in a nutshell?
A: I like John McCain... He's a friend, a hero, and a good man. But I have assets, too. I have experience in executive positions in goverment. I dealth with lots of crises in NYC (not just 9/11). I've dealth with foreign policy and negotiations. I am good at fiscal conservatism... I ran a gov't where grown was reducted, we increased police and teachers, and shrunk everything else. We also reduced taxes. NYC is the 17th largest economy in the world, so fiscal responsibility there is on a large scale. No more death tax, keep taxes low... the democrats want to increase them. I am equiped to handle a terrorist war and the national economy at the same time. And Americans really tend to prefer people with executive experience. The other Republicans are all qualified, but this is my pitch.

Q: (this is Everett!) Welcome to Red Sox nation! [lots of laughing] Talk about immigration, the people who are already here.
A: [he really skirter around this, sticking to "keeping people out" for a while before getting to it] Set up a fence (a high tech fence, not physical). Set up border statistics system to check patrol on success. Provide a tamper-proof ID card for legal immigrants (fingerprint and photo). [prodding about the people currently here] We can't take care of the people here until we stop the inflow. And of course we can put the criminal illegals out of the country right away. But once the borders are secure, then we ask the illegal immigrants here to get an ID card... then they pay taxes and are above-board. Anyone who doesn't do that, we kick them out. This will solve the problem of companies hiring people on phony identities, which is a big problem. Then, if the illegal immigrants are paying tax, if they want to be citizens, they wait at the back of the line behind legal immigrants, and they also must learn English.

[I like the way he said this point] In this way we can keep our heritage, uplift us with that history, but also assimilate people into our culture.

Q: Healthcare. He's a long term care worker and sees lots of poor care, but doesn't see how our country can pay for everything.
A: Everyone knows that health care and health insurance is too expensive. EVERYONE agrees on this. [That's just what Obama said!] The question is how can we get to a low price and keep or increase the quality of service? Not through gov't mandate or price control. It's like a puzzle, isn't it? I think it should be the consumer market... if lots of people want to buy it, the price goes down. There's no consumer market for insurance right now, it's only about 15 million people that buy their own insurance. If we increase that to 50-60 million, the price will come down and we'll retain quality. [Then he talks about cost and a tax break for paying for it and an HSA for the leftover money... didn't quite follow the whole thing]. And you should be able to buy it from anywhere in the country, not just your state.

Q: Energy plan? How would global warming solutions be a part of that?
A: The most important thing is energy independence... We should go after this goal like putting a man on the moon. Conservation is also a big this, but that only makes a dent. And India and China still need lots of energy so our being part of Kyoto treaty won't help when other countries still need all that energy. So biofuels, nuclear power (cites France), carbon sequestration, hybrid vehicles, wind, solar, hydroelectric... all that needs to go up a bit to help. Also we need more domestic oil, because we still need oil. And we need more domestic refineries so we're not stuck with pipelines. And clean coal.

Q: Military. people in their 40's and 50's want to sign up. Can we change the policy? I figure if you can do boot camp, you can do it.
A: The polics in NYC used to have that policy, and I left it up to them to determine their needs. That's something that the Army would have to decide. I would look into it, but I don't think I could make that judgement.

Q: Antiterror is big. Who's your secretary of state? Or which ones in the past do you admire?
A: George Schultz, Casper Weinberger, Henry Kissenger, Colin Powell, Cheney... too many names in the various cabinet positions, and I'm not declaring who I'd ask. But I'll start with what am I looking for in a VP? They need to be ready and able to serve as president. They need to be a partner in the administration. [Story about 9/11 and a phone call with Cheney and how he felt Cheney knew what he was doing]. For Sec of State/Defense, it's about balancing personalities and advice. Of course there's always Lincoln's way [Recommends a book "Team of Rivals" I think] of putting your same-party opponents in your cabinet! Honestly, I haven't thought about who would be in my cabinet.

And then he said thanks and shook a few hands on his way out.

My take:
The biggest thing I got out of this was an actual explanation of the health care solution being put forth. It was so refreshing to hear something besides "Socialized medicine is bad!" I actually had something for my brain to chew on in that one. And in general, I liked his logical, problem-solving manner of explaining things. I certainly see how moderate folks can lean his direction. I forgot to count the times he mentioned 9/11 but it was pretty numerous, which is one of the reasons my NJ cousins seem to dislike him. Still, he was well spoken and handled the questions with poise... I enjoyed the experience of seeing him.

Next up will be Romney and Huckabee, hopefully a Friday/Saturday combo! I'll try to take photos of Chuck Norris, too!