Oh-eight (R): More on that phone call
Posted: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 9:21 AM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Republicans
GIULIANI: The $9.11 fundraiser idea by some supporters participating in a Giuliani House Party seemed to cause the campaign a minor headache yesterday. We're guessing this won't be the last time the campaign has to distance itself from an over-eager supporter trying to invoke 9/11. Giuliani has a fine line to walk on this. As for this story, was the Giuliani campaign's "unfortunate" statement strong enough?
Giuliani hasn't been to Iraq but Iraq's coming to him. Giuliani added a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to his Wednesday schedule. The noon meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria allows Giuliani to continue showcasing his foreign policy understanding and provide an aura of presidentiality, one week after meeting with British officials in London.
Giuliani will head west Thursday for the rest of the week. The trip will focus on fundraising, but the mayor will also pick up an important endorsement in California. Former Gov. Pete Wilson is expected to announce his support Thursday in Santa Monica, according to the AP.
The cell phone call that Giuliani took during the NRA speech continues to get "what was that!?!!?" type of coverage. Even the
Wall Street Journal editorializes on the call: "Giuliani has run an impressive campaign so far, especially on the issues. He has a record of accomplishment in New York, and he projects the kind of executive competence that many Americans want in a President. The rap on his candidacy, however, is that his personal history and behavior are simply too strange for someone who wants to sit in the Oval Office. Voters will decide whether that's true, but if nothing else Mr. Giuliani ought to be aware of this vulnerability and do nothing to compound it.”
“‘That was just weird,’ one NRA audience member told the New York Post about the phone interruption. Mr. Giuliani doesn't need more weird."
MCCAIN: The New Hampshire Union Leader reports that a University of New Hampshire poll will also show "that John McCain has gained on front-runners Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. The GOP poll is expected to show that Romney's support has slightly eroded since the last UNH poll in July, while Giuliani and McCain have gained support. McCain is expected to be within, or close to, the poll's margin of error behind the two."
PAUL: Giuliani isn't the only one with supporters causing him a headache. Apparently, Ron Paul's supporters went over the line in Michigan over the weekend. "According to one eyewitness, Giuliani was beset by dozens of Paul enthusiasts, some of whom shouted taunts about 9/11, including: ‘9/11 was an inside job’ and ‘Rudy, Rudy, what did you do with the gold?’ an apparent reference to rumors about $200 million in gold alleged to have disappeared in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.
“Ed Wyszynski, a longtime GOP activist from Eagle, said the Paul supporters threatened to throw Giuliani overboard and harassed him as he took shelter in the ferry's pilothouse for the 15-minute journey. ‘It was awful,’ said Wyszynski. ‘Never, ever have I seen such a disgraceful performance.’”
ROMNEY: He had to cut short weekend campaigning in South Carolina after picking up a cold during his latest fund-raising dash.
THOMPSON: GOP analyst Jennifer Rubin speculates on the hard time she's having getting her hands on Thompson's schedule. "You may recall a couple weeks back there was some question as to the extent of Thompson's schedule. Thompson caught some flak once the schedule was finally released showing a light calendar. Well, Thompson's team took steps to stop that from happening again. Now, they don't release a calendar for the week and aren't responding to repeated inquiries as to his schedule. It appears other than a radio show here or there all he is doing this week is some medium level fundraising in Tennessee. Pick your favorite explanation -- insufficient advance team to set events, wasn't drawing overwhelming numbers at events, doesn't like press scrutiny or that whole work ethic thing. The other camps, of course, are taking notice and one chimed in: ‘Probably a smart move. This way nobody can ask Thompson about Dobson, Libya, Schiavo, the Everglades, or fundraising.’”
