Giuliani's Plant Collection on the Seacoast

This morning I made my first trip out to the seacoast for a townhall with Guiliani.

It's a nice area; driving around I've passed towns like Exeter, Hampton Beach, and now I've settled down into a Starbucks right on the marina in Portsmouth. For reference, I'm headquartered out of central New Hampshire in the state's largest city, Manchester (pop. right around 100k). Manchester is the city that rules New Hampshire politics and granite staters derogatorily refer to the political power elite there that strongarm the primary as the "Manchester Mafia." In 2004, this group turned out 16,106 Democrats (overall close to 88,000 people voted statewide to give Kerry the state. Over 1 million people voted in the Ohio Dem Primary). Contrast that with Portsmouth that turned out 5,400 in 2004, or New Castle -where this morning's event was hosted - which drove a mere 281 to the polls. The numbers give perspective on just how crucial each handshake, personal connection, or townhall can be for a candidate.

Giuliani's been criticized in New Hampshire, and nationally, for refusing to submit himself unfiltered to the public. Instead of traditional New Hampshire townhall meetings, he's held gatherings in places of business or amongst private, pre-screened crowds. This strategy has probably been in large part a response to the massive malcontent social conservatives have voiced over his views on abortion and morality (...it really takes balls to announce to the world in a press conference you're divorcing your hospital-stricken wife before you tell her personally). Today's meeting was open, but the Giuliani camp peppered the audience with plenty of planted questions.

Watching Giuliani speak in person makes me much more comfortable about his campaign. The man has an element of charisma - unfortunately for him, his ego and flimsy grasp on policy seem to negate whatever positives are there.

For the first 25 minutes Giuliani spoke about New York City. Predictably, the entirety of the stump speech was developed as teaser, one way or another invoking 9/11. Listening in, it felt like an awkward date that's gone too far too fast. Rubbing up against my leg, Rudy kept referencing "the fall of his last term" or "when we all bandied together" or anything else that made it perfectly crystal clear where he was going. Halfway through I was ready to just yell out "we get the point."

Also, his pretentiousness on the issues was a little too much for me. Republican or Democrat, despite what I blather on about online, I can recognize that most people probably have an angle that validates their views in someway or form (not to say someone's views are "right", but just that they have some experience to talk). NYC has 8 million people within the city limits...that's close to the population of Ohio and larger than plenty of other states. As a former mayor of the city, there's no denying the fact that Giuliani has some perspective. Still, throughout his speech he belittled legislators of both parties, acted as if no one in Washington has any idea how to run anything, and his only solution for everything is to set up ambiguous programs modeled after those in NYC. For a man that decries bureaucracy each chance he gets, it's kinda ironic. I mean c'mon.

When we got to the public questions period the real show started. This guy was interesting:

As soon as the Giuliani opened the floor for questions this guys hand shot up lickity split. Plenty of folks throughout the audience had their hands up, however, as if knowing where to look Giuliani ignored the other hands and made a full 180 degree turn as if searching for this guy - let's call 'em Carl. Carl didn't have much to say other than the fact that he loved the mayor and was so happy that someone with "9/11 experience or somethin' or other" was running for President. The kicker was how eager Karl was, and how nervous he was to say nothing. And then there's the suit - most people in the crowd were dressed down. Newcastle is more of vacation destination than a business district. Call me crazy, but immediately I had to chuckle. It just seemed too transparent. I imagine the campaign called this helpless sap up the night before and asked him to say something nice about this or that to warm the crowd up. Naturally, he put on his Sunday best to praise the Mayor. All this isn't that big of a deal, it just goes to back to how labored Giuliani's campaign is. Kinda sad they manage everything so closely.

An aside I want to get in...the mayor went off on this long tangent about Bob Dole, his mom, the '96 campaign, and NYC crime rates. The jist was that Giuliani takes complete responsibility for cleaning up New York while ignoring the Brady Bill. I found it funny coming from a guy who devotes a full 5 minutes of his stump to criticizing democrats for not giving President Bush a sliver of credit for keeping us safe. Also, I loved watching him squirm when he was asked how he supports "regional protection" of the 2nd amendment - afterall, the constitution only applies in some regions. Anywhoo.

Afterwards, the press corral was the same it is day end and day out. Fattest reporter asks the first five questions. If you step out of line he eats you. The questions are always pathetic too - but who do you criticize? The Republican base for their lack of interest in their candidates' positions, or the journalists for their lack of depth?

First Italian-American President or Fred Thompson? Jeez.