Rudy fans if not Rudy voters

PUNTA GORDA -- Rudy Giuliani's tour hit the Village Fish Market and Restaurant, and Nick and Sue Randall were more than happy to oblige. Even if they can't vote.

Giuliani held a meet and greet at the market, and the British transplants were among his hosts. They wrote to the campaign: "My husband Nick and I moved to America 5 years ago, from England, and it was the events of 911 and Rudy's tremendous handling of such a traumatic event that made me decide that I wanted to live in such an amazing country. I would love to be able to say: 'I'm proud to be American' for now it's, 'I am proud to be in America'."

That of course fits into the message about the 9/11 attacks and national security. Right now, the campaign is just happy to be arriving this minute in Clearwater for a town hall meeting with Pinellas Republicans. The visit is two hours late, even later than the arrival at Mel's Diner in Sarasota. Giuliani was supposed to be in Lakeland right now.

UPDATE: Rudy thanks the throngs at Tucson's Southwest Grille for their patience and acknowledged his late arrival. No one complained, and one man had him sign his Giuliani campaign flier. Onward!

UPDATE 2.0: Giuliani finished his second day with a briefer than planned (and later ) but still drew a crowd of supporters. And his usual anti-abortion heckler. And a throng of Ron Paul supporters waving signs. After urging people to vote, he acknowledged the Ron Paul supporters right to be there.

"I still don't know who Ron Paul is," chirped one bystander.

Comments

Giuliani has too many skeletons in his closet that the Dems will be more than happy to expose this fall (this on top of all his extramerital affairs, shady business dealings like the company he formerd post 9-11 representing a former convicted cocaine trafficker to land govt contracts). This on top of the fact that he is anything but a tax cutter (though he poses to be one).

John McCain appears to be the only GOP candidate who will do what he says, and say what he does. The fact that the Washington establishment does not like McCain means he is a threat to the same old song and dance. That's what America needs after 8 yrs. of Bush and 8 yrs. of Clinton -- both of whom were bumbling do-nothings. John McCain for all his warts will tell us what we NEED as opposed to just giving us what we WANT. That means we may finally get real Social Security reform, an end to wasteful pork-barrell spending, and tax-cuts with dollar-for-dollar spending cuts (the spending mess the current crop of GOPers led by Bush is atrocious). So please voters, wake up and recognize we need someone to give us all a dose of distasteful medicine. Sorry for all the Giuliani and Romney supporters, but they just don't have the spine or convictions to do it. And Ron Paul, for all his great ideas has 20 ridiculous ones for every good one.

Give America's next generation a hope for a brighter future. Vote McCain!!!

You guys missed the real story. The Naked Cowboy was at his Sarasota tour stop.

How many people showed up to Tuscon's?

The Tuscon's event was packed, the fire marshal actually would not let anyone else into the event.

IT'S TUCSON NOT TUSCON! Tucson is a city in Arizona. Tuscon is an annual conference of the Tobacco Use Survey.

[Dorothy]

I was at Tuscon's and it most definitely was not packed. And there were more police security than spectators. Every restaurant has a capacity. It's posted on the wall. The Republicans rented the room and filled it. There were about 30 people outside waiting to shake hizzoner's hand. Some had Ron Paul buttons on. Not very impressive.

I was at the event as well and the room was packed to it's capacity which was in the 300 to 350 range. There was another 30 to 40 people outside waiting to shake Rudy's hand. There was maybe 3 or 4 Ron Paul people their and a scattered few from other campaigns. Another impressive fact is that even with Rudy running 2 hours late the event room remained packed and the people outside waited for all that time until he got there.

[Will DePort]

Rudy can try and influence the Floridians, Rudy can send global messages during the Super Bowl Feb 3....two days before Tusanmi Tuesday...Rudy can win the GOP...but in the end....small states will elect someone else..causing the election to go into Congress. Each small state has the same voting power as the big states in this process. Rudy is un-electable! Small states do not like Rudy.

"trudi fans"

well of course

dont most gangsters retire to either fla or arizona??

[Avoid McCain--he is anti 1st Amendment. He has not vision or intellect.]

The First Amendment to the Constitution is not Progressive. It gives greater weight to the right of the individual to speak, to write, and to associate than to any collective purpose the government might have in suppressing speech. That right includes inevitably a right to spend money to speak, to write, and to associate. Without the right to spend, the other rights would have no concrete meaning.

In contrast, Progressives see speech as a means to a collective good -- improved public debate -- attained by government restrictions on individual liberty. In this view, free speech and free spending are mere self-interest or selfishness, vices to be overcome by benevolent censors.

For McCain, such self-interest should be sacrificed to the higher cause of "clean government." Hence, McCain's infamous statement on Don Imus's radio show: "I would rather have a clean government than one where quote First Amendment rights are being respected, that has become corrupt. If I had my choice, I'd rather have the clean government."