Giuliani keeps focus on Florida
He is spending three days here despite Iowa's caucuses next week.
By DAVID DECAMP, Times Staff Writer
Published December 27, 2007
ST. PETERSBURG -- The nation is focused on next week's Iowa caucuses, but Rudy Giuliani's attention remains fixed on Florida.
Giuliani began a three-day tour Wednesday across Florida, hoping to start shoring up a shrunken lead by highlighting national security, his campaign staple. Giuliani hopes Florida's Jan. 29 primary will catapult him to the presidential nomination, as he finds himself trailing his Republican rivals in other opening contests.
In Largo, the former New York City mayor spoke at American Legion Post 119, a friendly staging ground for a message built on security after the Sept. 11 attacks. Giuliani is scheduled to visit the Fort Lauderdale and Miami areas today, speaking again to veterans and a law enforcement group. He'll split time in Orlando and Iowa on Friday.
His weekend concludes in Iowa and New Hampshire -- home to the initial contests -- but he is expected to invest more time in Florida around the New Year, campaign spokesman Elliott Bundy said.
"Whoever wins Florida will have terrific advantage, momentum, let's put it that way," Giuliani told the editorial board of the St. Petersburg Times.
Giuliani focused much of answers with the Times board on the nation's security, whether the topic was foreign policy, economics or alternative sources of energy for transportation.
He said he would continue President Bush's policy that "we're on offense against Islamic terrorism" after the Sept. 11 attacks, which happened when he was mayor.
"We should not change the way we're doing to make ourselves popular. We should do a better job explaining why we're doing it," Giuliani said of relations with foreign powers.
Giuliani said waterboarding, an interrogation technique that critics call torture, should be "a once-in-a-lifetime, once-in-a-decade situation" at the president's disposal. While it should not be a general use by the government, Giuliani would not say whether the practice is torture, describing it as matter for courts to decide.
Giuliani is no better than third in recent polls for Iowa's Jan. 3 caucuses or New Hampshire's Jan. 8 primary. Acknowledging he hasn't spent as much time in Iowa or New Hampshire as competitors, he said he has visited Florida 24 times.
"We'll figure out who the genius is after Feb. 5," he said, referring to the day when 23 states have primaries. "I think this is the right strategy."
However, Giuliani's advantage in Florida has dropped to single digits -- or evaporated -- with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's steep rise in December, according to most recent polls.
That has led him back Wednesday to Florida, including interviews with the editorial boards of the Tampa Tribune and the Times.
Giuliani also told the Times he would stress energy independence to avoid having potential enemies become richer through America's fuel needs, as well as to improve the environment. He would not support raising the tax on gasoline, though.
"I see hybrid vehicles as a big answer," Giuliani said, noting Brazil is ahead of the U.S. in biofuel production.
In the Largo American Legion hall, he spoke for eight minutes in front of reporters, who were shooed out before he spoke privately with roughly a dozen veterans. Bundy said it allowed for a more frank discussion. Afterward, Giuliani took questions from reporters.
"He's the only who asked to speak with us," said Vietnam veteran Mike O'Meara, 63, of Clearwater, a Giuliani supporter.
Inside the hall, Sue O'Baugh, the wife of the post commander, said she has pretty much settled on Giuliani. But asked why, the 68-year-old Republican from Largo had to think a bit. Then something came to her.
"He'd be the best," she said. "The 9/11 thing come to mind. He had a heck of a thing come on the U.S."
David DeCamp can be reached at ddecamp@sptimes.com or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6232.