• Giuliani Notes,  President 2008,  Rudy Giuliani

    Giuliani Notes: Rudy in Florida Defends Firms Citgo Work

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    Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, left, talks to New York Yankees manager Joe Torre in the Yankees dugout before the Yankees 8-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates in a spring training baseball game in Tampa, Fl., Sunday, March 18, 2007. Giuliani attended a fundraiser at the stadium before the game.

    AP: Giuliani defends firm’s work for Citgo

    Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani on Sunday defended his law firm’s role in representing Citgo Petroleum Corp., which is ultimately controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, saying it was helping protect American jobs.

    Giuliani acknowledged though, that his opponents will try to exploit the news that a lawyer with Bracewell & Giuliani of Houston has been representing Citgo before the Texas legislature.

    The firm has had a contract with Citgo since before Giuliani joined it.

    Somebody is trying to make a story/flap here. Poorly I might add…….

    Rudy’s quotes:

    “Oh, they’ll exploit everything,” Giuliani said in an interview. “There are things that make sense and things that don’t make sense and that doesn’t make any sense. It was one of those political attacks where you have nothing to do with it, you’re not involved in it and so it doesn’t really worry you very much. What they’re doing is lawful and honorable and helping to protect jobs for more than 100,000 Americans.”

    And Rudy is correct:

    Although Citgo Petroleum is a U.S.-based company, it was bought in 1990 by Petroleos de Venezuela, the national oil company of Venezuela. It employs 4,000 people in Texas and other states, and Giuliani said indirectly more than 100,000 people have jobs because of the company.

    Rudy was in Florida raising money. What a fun way to do it.

    Hey Giuliani campaign does Rudy need some press coverage on his next baseball trip?

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    Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, right, talks with Yogi Berra in the New York Yankees dugout before the Yankees faced the Pittsburgh Pirates in their spring training baseball game in Tampa, FL., Sunday, March 18, 2007. Giuliani, who was in Tampa for a fundraiser at the stadium, caught the game’s first pitch, thrown by Randy Maris, son of former Yankee legend Roger Maris.

    Rudy watched the game and discussed Hugo Chavez and America’s dependency on foreign oil:

    He discussed Chavez during the game, saying he is one of the reasons why the United States needs to develop alternative fuels and become energy independent.

    “As the president I would make that my number one priority, the way Eisenhower and Kennedy made getting to the moon the number one priority of the American government. It has to consume a tremendous amount of our attention,” Giuliani said.

    If the country had done so in the 1970s, the nation would be more secure now, he said.

    He called Chavez dangerous and said the United States needs to use concerns about him to build relations with Latin American countries.

    “We’ve got to learn how to play Chavez. There’s a lot of concern in America about Chavez; there’s even more concern in South America. We have to sort of use that to bring them to the United States,” he said.

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    Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, decked out in New York Yankees gear, goes out to catch the first pitch thrown by Randy Maris, Yankees’ great Roger Maris’ son, before the Yankees faced the Pittsburgh Pirates in a spring training baseball game.

    Others Blogging:

    Captain Ed

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  • John McCain,  President 2008

    John McCain Watch: Age and Health Questions Plague McCain

    Senator John McCain campaigning in New Hampshire yesterday.

    Age and Health Questions Hound McCain

    John McCain, 70 and scarred, cannot deny his age. So he jokes about it. “I’m older than dirt, more scars than Frankenstein, but I learned a few things along the way,” quips the Republican presidential candidate, who tries to play down the ravages of time for the wisdom acquired over seven decades.

    His body is battered from torture in Vietnam. The scar along his left cheek is a reminder of a different battle, with skin cancer. Yet, McCain packs his work days so tight that aides grouse. And the man who could be the oldest first-term president hiked the Grand Canyon from “rim to rim” last summer.

    Despite McCain’s high-energy lifestyle, getting older begets questions about health. The four-term Arizona senator no doubt will have to prove to voters that he is physically and mentally up to the demanding job of president.

    Flap knows that Senator McCain is too OLD to be President. The job is too demanding and stressful for a 70 year old man – irrespective of McCain’s past medical history.

    Flap expects his President to be vigorous and alert to make the RIGHT decision.

    McCain doesn’t make it.

    And the American people feel the same way:

    Still, an aging candidate troubles some voters.

    Two recent surveys found that people are less likely to vote for a presidential candidate who is older than 72 than they would a candidate who has been divorced twice and a candidate who is Mormon. Giuliani is on his third marriage; Romney is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

    In Michigan, Jerry Roe, a Republican who is a former state GOP executive director, backed McCain in 2000 but supports Romney this time. “McCain’s too old,” Roe said recently.

    “He looks tired. He looks like he’s dragging,” added Chip Felkel, a GOP strategist in South Carolina who says he is not aligned with a candidate.

    McCain is attempting to counter health and age skeptics.

    But, Flap asks the reader: Look at the video above.

    After two days of campigning does McCain look vigorous?

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    Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., listens to questions during a town hall meeting campaign stop in Milford, N.H., Saturday, March 17, 2007.

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    John McCain Watch: I’ll Close GITMO

    John McCain Watch: Iraq Could End His Career

    President 2008 Watch: Arnold Schwarzenegger – No Presidential Primary Endorsement

    John McCain Watch: The Blame Game

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  • Giuliani Notes,  President 2008,  Rudy Giuliani

    Giuliani Notes: New York – Rudy’s Home Turf

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    Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani marches along Fifth Avenue during St. Patrick’s day parade in New York, Saturday, March 17, 2007.

    MARCH ON RUDY’S ‘TURF’

    GIULIANI GETS HIS IRISH UP VS. HILL

    Rudy Giuliani laid claim to New York over his possible presidential rival Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday, saying the Empire State had been “my home turf” longer than it’d been hers.

    The Republican Giuliani, who has kept his comments about Clinton to a minimum in the campaign so far, spoke just before he marched in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade up Fifth Avenue.

    Asked how he’d do in a general-election matchup against Democratic front-runner Clinton on her “home turf,” a chuckling Giuliani replied: “I have to just remind you that it’s my home turf, too. And in fact, it’s been my home turf longer than Hillary’s.

    Well, Rudy has a point. Hillary is a “carpetbagger” from Illinois via Arkansas via Washington.

    “I was born in Brooklyn, I grew up in Nassau County for part of my life, I lived in Queens, I’ve lived in Manhattan, I went to school in The Bronx, and I did the best in Staten Island,” Giuliani added. “So [it’s] my home turf, too.”

    Where does Hillary call home?

    Wherever it is politically expedient.

    Unlike McCain, Romney or any of the other GOP candidates for President, Rudy will put New York into play in November 2008. And why not? Rudy is a native New Yorker.

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