People Features
Political People: Rudy Giuliani gives Iowans reality check
By Stone Martindale
Dec 30, 2007, 18:50 GMT

GOP candidate Rudy Giuliani has been put on the spot to defend his absence from the Iowa schmooze-athon that precedes the state's Caucus.

More than any other caucus, Iowans tend to be disproportionately attention hungry from their respective candidates, expecting all of them to show up at pancake breakfasts, diner do-wops and church gatherings.

Well, Rudy is a very busy guy.

In his final campaign swing through Iowa, Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Iowans should not be offended by his lack of attention to the first-in-the-nation caucus state.

"What I say to the people of Iowa is that we're running a campaign in 20 states or 29 states, or however many there are between the 3rd (of January) and the 5th (of February)," Giuliani said after speaking to his supporters in his small campaign headquarters west of Des Moines. "If you look at my schedule, I think I've probably campaigned as much or more than anyone but I've done it proportionately throughout the country. I probably have the most appearances in California and the most appearances in Florida."

But what about the needy, confused voters of Iowa?

"That is all well and good when you have one primary then a large amount time to the next primary and it all goes out over a three- or four-month period," Giuliani said. "But when you're looking at a one-month period with 29 primaries, nobody is going to win all of them, so the question is who can win the most of them?"

Giuliani's focus is on a bigger prize: Florida and California, along with winning larger states such as Illinois too, all of which hold primaries on Feb. 5.

Giuliani made his remarks in an interview with ABC News, excerpts of which aired on "World News" on Saturday. More will air Sunday on "Good Morning America."

Giuliani's first national television ad was launched Friday, also airing in New Hampshire and Florida.

The ad began running one day after the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

"Obviously that decision was made before we knew about the terrible events in Pakistan and it was not intended at all to coincide with that," Giuliani said.

The reason his first ad discussed that subject, he said, was because his campaign's top commitment to voters "is to keep America on the offense and the terrorists' war against us. That is the No. 1 overwriting commitment that I make to the American people and it's the one that I think the next president of the United States is going to have to focus on the most."

Giuliani refrained from controversies involving the foreign policy credentials of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the GOP frontrunner in Iowa who has raised eyebrows by not apparently knowing that Pakistan had lifted martial law, and for questionably claiming that there has been an influx of undocumented Pakistanis illegally crossing the Mexico-U.S. border.

"My feeling is that I'm the best qualified," he said, avoiding the game of criticizing fellow Republican candidates unless they attack him first.

"I think voters want to hear us get above all that. & I think the negative stuff, particularly at this stage in the campaign doesn't really appeal to most voters," he said. "I think what they're looking for is, 'OK, What can you do? What do you stand for? What have you accomplished in the past?'"