Rudy Giuliani spoke at Pat Robertson's Regent University yesterday where he - and the audience - focused on foreign policy rather than social issues.
The New York Sun's Russell Berman reports Giuliani was met with a standing ovation by more than 650 students and business leaders by "plugging his record as mayor, pledging to prosecute the war on terrorism aggressively, and offering a none too subtle reminder" of his role after 9/11. Giuliani "never uttered the word abortion" and omitted one of his "12 Commitments" that pledges to reduce abortions. Giuliani said the abortion dodge wasn't a "conscious decision" because the speech was about leadership, so it would "actually have been a conscious decision to go out of my way to mention it."
When the audience was given the chance to ask Giuliani questions, they asked him about "Iran, Iraq, and immigration, not abortion, gay rights, or gun control."
The New York Times' Marc Santora reports Giuliani said it was pointless for the U.S. to negotiate with Hamas and instead should work with Egypt and Jordan to bolster Fatah. For the first time, Giuliani said he didn't think waterboarding was necessary for interrogations, but thought interrogation needed to be aggressive. Giuliani "likened what he meant to more traditional means of obtaining information," like police pressure on suspects.
Giuliani also hit Democrats on terrorism and Iraq. Giuliani said President Clinton "did not respond" to the 1993 World Trade Center attack and Democrats running for president "want to go back, to put the country in reverse to the 1990s." Giuliani also said leaving Iraq prematurely would cause the US to have to return at some point in the future incurring greater casualties "at the dimension of the Vietnam war."
Meanwhile, Fred Thompson defended his past as a lobbyist, reports the Associated Press. "Nobody yet has pointed out any of my clients that didn't deserve representation," Thompson said. Thompson "lobbied for a savings-and-loan deregulation bill that helped hasten the industry's collapse and a failed nuclear energy project that cost taxpayers more than a billion dollars." Thompson was also a "lobbyist for deposed Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide," and made a call on his behalf to the White House chief of staff in 1991, records show. Aristide had been "widely criticized for endorsing" the use of burning tires around a person's neck as an execution method.
In Mike Bloomberg news, the New York Sun's Jill Gardiner reports an anonymous source says Bloomberg is the mystery donor of $30 million to more than 500 New York City organizations.
On the Democratic side, Warren Buffett helped Hillary Clinton raise $1 million last night and told a big donor, Wall Street crowd that Democrats are better than Republicans at taking care of the less fortunate.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama's campaign has swapped one supporter for another in one of its new Iowa ads, Marc Ambinder reports. The president of the SEIU's Chicago union has been replaced in the "Carry" ad after he was concerned his membership on the SEIU's executive board would give the impression that the union endorsed Obama. The campaign replaced him with Jerry Kellman who hired Obama as a community organizer in the 1980s.
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