Giuliani embraces tough love
From the Associated Press
Rudolph Giuliani
He has broadened his image, vowing to keep America safe while defending religious rights and families. His combative style appears to be working as he leads in the GOP race.
DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. -- Next to a crackling fire in a picturesque mountain lodge, in the wooded and lightly populated north country, Rudolph W. Giuliani met some of the people who might help him become the next president.What he gave them was a dose of New York.
When one woman fretted that a local paper mill had eliminated 300 jobs, Giuliani cut her off and advised that she focus on something "positive," like recruiting a new employer to town.
When a woman worried about rising property taxes, he told her to elect smarter local officials.
A 9-year-old girl, afraid of another attack like the one on Sept. 11, sparked a finger-waving lecture at another point in the day from Giuliani, who said that Democrats were afraid to use the term "Islamic terrorism." "You have to face your enemy," he told the third-grader, Kailey Lemieux.
Other politicians might have expressed empathy, or drawn voters into deeper conversation, or lightened the talk of violence around elementary school children. But not the former New York mayor. With his intense demeanor and aggressive policy stances -- such as pledging to "prevent" Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon or to "set them back five or 10 years" -- Giuliani has methodically built an image as the toughest guy on the block, unafraid of looking belligerent in the cause of keeping America safe.
Though it isn't always pretty up close, Giuliani's demeanor seems to be working. He leads the national polls for a Republican nomination that many believed he could never win because of his relatively liberal views on abortion and other social issues.
No comments:
Post a Comment