Oh-eight (R): Rudy's 9/11 ad
Posted: Thursday, December 27, 2007 9:11 AM by Mark Murray
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Republicans
GIULIANI: While Giuliani's first TV ads didn't really mention 9/11, this new one -- which will air nationally on cable as well as on broadcast in Florida and New Hampshire -- doesn't shy away from 9/11 mentions. "In Giuliani's ad ... he recalls reading ‘The Greatest Generation’ shortly before the Sept. 11 attacks, and said he equates the courage and heroism of firefighters and others after those attacks with the bravery of the World War II generation.”
“With images from Sept. 11 on the screen, Giuliani warns terrorists not to underestimate America's resolve. ‘Our democracy means we disagree with each other,’ he says, ‘but when you come and try and take away from us our freedom, when you try and come here and kill our people, we're one and we're going to stand up to you and we're going to prevail.’”
More: "Giuliani's new ad comes as his candidacy faces growing questions about a strategy that has played down Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and South Carolina in favor of a major push to win Florida's Jan. 29 primary and then sweep many of the big states that hold contests on Feb. 5. Giuliani spent Wednesday in Florida, where he met with veterans at an American Legion post in Largo.”
The New York Times writes, "A week after a severe headache landed Rudolph W. Giuliani in a St. Louis hospital, the Giuliani campaign on Wednesday released the first statement from one of his doctors, who pronounced him ‘in very good health.’ The statement, from Mr. Giuliani’s personal physician, Dr. Valentin Fuster of Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, detailed for the first time the medical tests that were performed on Mr. Giuliani, a battery suggesting that the doctors wanted to rule out the possibility of stroke, heart trouble or infections like meningitis. ‘Because of the significant headache, it was important to have as much information as possible and err on the side of caution,’ Dr. Fuster said in the statement.”
NBC/NJ's Matthew Berger is on the trail with Giuliani in Florida. And yesterday the sports metaphor of choice wasn't baseball but … cycling. (?) The Giuliani campaign is all about the baseball metaphors, Berger notes. Giuliani himself has described the unorthodox campaign season as a “29 inning game,” suggesting scoring early is not required to win in the end.
But other campaign aides have been thinking about it in a different way. Discussing Giuliani’s focus on Florida, one senior campaign official likened Giuliani to Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France. No one expected Armstrong to win every leg, the aide said, and everyone seemed to know how well he would have to do in each leg to win the cumulative race in the end. And when asked about campaign operations, the aide said they were the folks in the bright yellow uniforms surrounding Armstrong wherever he went.”
Giuliani has largely written off Iowa and New Hampshire -- but not entirely. He will campaign in Iowa on Friday and Saturday, and then to the Granite State on Sunday. But he is trying to stay out of the fray of the Huckabee vs. Romney battle, hoping to challenge the survivor on Jan. 29 in Florida and then the nearly two dozen states that vote on Feb. 5. It would almost seem like Giuliani sees himself as having a first-round bye (to borrow a football metaphor).
HUCKABEE: Politico reports that Huckabee is still accepting paid speaking gigs -- something that all of the other major candidates have given up. Imagine if Giuliani were still giving paid speeches…
Huckabee was first out of the box with a Christmas ad (and it was THE most talked-about ad of the week). Now, he's the first out of the box with a post-Christmas gimmick that also seemed to work: He went pheasant hunting, which is probably something a lot of Iowans are doing this week because it's vacation time.
Huckabee’s Iowa hunting trip lands him, in full orange hunting gear and holding a pheasant, on the front page of the Boston Globe.
Bloomberg News looks at the wedge that Huckabee may be creating between evangelicals and Wall Street Republicans.
Speaking of… “The Club for Growth is spending $175,000 to continue running ads in Iowa that highlight tax increases adopted in Arkansas when Huckabee was governor. During the past three weeks, the group has spent $550,000 to criticize Huckabee's economic policies. According to Federal Election Commission records, ClubForGrowth.net received $200,000 this month from Bob Perry, a Houston homebuilder who in 2004 pumped nearly $4.5 million into the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth to pay for unsubstantiated ads that questioned Kerry's Vietnam service.” Perry has donated the maximum to Romney.
Quietly, Huckabee's been garnering endorsements in non-Iowa states. Here's one the campaign has received in Florida: Florida State Senate Majority Whip Mike Haridopolos. Huckabee also nabbed Former Wyoming Governor Jim Geringer. Remember, the Wyoming caucuses take place on Jan. 5 (two days after Iowa).
MCCAIN: The Washington Post delves into the McCain comeback story. "Aides concede that McCain is benefiting from the general dissatisfaction Republican voters feel about his rivals, who they say have failed to sell themselves to a broad, conservative audience."
Bob Novak doesn't endorse McCain, but he comes close by making the case that the Arizona senator is the GOP's last man standing.
The New York Times has a story that will probably surprise many readers: McCain has the largest family of any of the candidates. "But they are largely absent in a primary battle in which families — and all that their presence implies — are central ornaments. Yet unlike the absent children of Rudolph W. Giuliani, who have strained relations with their father, the McCain children speak with endearment of Mr. McCain. They have maintained close relations with him in spite of long absences during childhood, a period of intense disappointment — among his older children when Mr. McCain remarried — and the breadth of geography and generations.”
ROMNEY: The Los Angeles Times looks at the rise of both Huckabee and McCain, and speculates it may be because the two have successfully painted themselves as authentic straight talkers compared to Romney. "For Romney, the issue is particularly troublesome. He has spent millions of dollars over the last year courting key Republican constituencies in Iowa and New Hampshire, hoping wins in those early states will propel him to the nomination. But in recent weeks he has been forced to defend his claim that his father marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and to explain why he hired a landscaping company that employed undocumented workers despite his tough stance against illegal immigration."
