Rudy the policy man

Rudy Giuliani came by the office Wednesday and spent an hour with the Times editorial board. The board's meetings are on the record and news staffers can attend, so I sat in the corner and listened. [Times photo | Scott Keeler]

I know it is corny and superficial but I still like a guy who gives you a good handshake and looks you in the eye and acknowledges your existence as a fellow human being. Giuliani is good at this, insisted on shaking every hand in the room and repeating each name back. The best ever at this, of course, is Bill Clinton.

Forget the who's-winning political stuff. It was interesting to try to pin down Giuliani on policy. If I understood him right, he said he would use military force as a last resort if Iran is on the verge of developing a nuclear capability. "Using the military option would be very dangerous," he said -- but not as dangerous as a nuclear Iran. (If you are really into this, be advised that he named Yale's Prof. Charles Hill as his top adviser on these matters.)

Giuliani said he opposed the practice of waterboarding in interrogation except for "once in a lifetime, once in a decade" circumstances, at the president's discretion. He wouldn't be pinned down on whether waterboarding is "torture" per se. He never criticized the Bush Administration directly but tried to distinguish himself from it. He said all his domestic policies would be "built around growth principles" but was not specific -- if "growth principles" means more free rides for rich guys and zillion-dollar deficits shoved onto our grandkids' backs, it does not sound so great to me.

Giuliani agreed that the U.S. needs to "engage the rest of the world" and said that France, Germany and others who disagreed with us about Iraq were not our enemies because of it. (We coulda used some of that sentiment during the whole "freedom fries" nonsense.) "If we don't become engaged in the world, we're going to make terrible mistakes," he said. Hmm.

Let's see, what else? He talked about "energy independence" in broad terms, including a mix of biofuel, nuclear, hybrid vehicles, and more reliance on wind, solar and hydro sources. He would NOT increase taxes on gasoline, preferring incentives instead of disincentives. He made a general statement about giving states more "flexibility" under the No Child Left Behind Act, whatever that means. And knowing his Florida third-rail issues, he defended the distinction given to Cuban refugees, fleeing political (i.e. Communist) persecution, as distinct from Haitians or other groups mere seeking economic improvement.

On the question of entitlements -- Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid -- Giuliani said Social Security was most ripe for being put on a sound basis with a bipartisan commission, as been's done before. He said his two conditions as president for a Social Security fix would be NO tax increase (not even increasing the cap for folks making more than $97,000 or so a year) and some kind of "personal account" option.

When it came to Medicare, Giuliani grabbed a notepad and paper and started sketching out his ideas. (I grabbed the notepad afterward and made a photocopy of his scribbles.) The gist of it was that Giuliani would offer an outright tax credit -- $15,000 a year for families, $7,500 for individuals -- provided it was used to buy health insurance.

Giuliani's overall idea is to increase the share of Americans who have their own insurance in the private market, but not through their employers. (That's the little sliver of the chart where he jotted the word "Private.") By swelling that market to 50-60 million Americans, it would drive down costs and ease pressure on the entitled programs. At least, that's his idea.

He spent a little more than an hour and, another little thing that makes for a good politician, acted like he didn't want to go while his staff was trying to usher him out. In the debates and in person, he strikes me as a fairly level-headed guy, not somebody just spouting off a bunch of slogans and ideological junk.

Okay, we can go back to the "who's-winning" stuff now.

Comments

[Lawrence]

Well, at least he came to Florida and gave his opinion. The democrats who are ignoring this state, will discover, as the democrats always do, how wrong they were and the big mistake it was.

[voxy]

Well, I've heard (but don't know for a fact) that those on death row (legally or NOT) become very practiced at this same glad-handing.(and sincerity) and the same reluctance to be led off. (sorry LOL)
Rudy strikes me as a VERY VERY slow learner. People are SICK of him trying to take credit for being a Sept. 11, 2001 SAVIOUR. 1. it's sickening. 2. see ONE. 3. he WAS NOT a hero. 4. When you see the firemen endorse him you know he's a BIG BIG achille's heel.
Same as the four newly selected members of the st pete city council. Who is running this country now? The firefighters or the PEOPLE? OH, and the REAL firefighters in NY are very outspoken against RUDY.

Howard, is this a BAD time to ask you to do a column supporting impeachment considering that the venerable FREEP and eight other major newspapers including Miami ran the Wexler op-ed??

[kitty]

Lawrence, the dems learned long ago that they needn't campaign in Florida as it's not been a "swing" state in 15 years. Why waste money when the fix is already in?

[Rick]

Rudy's fatal flaw is that he think 9/11 started on 9/11. He refuses to acknowlege (as most republicans refuse to acknowlege) that the seeds of 9/11 (and the genesis of Al Quaeda) were planted in the first Gulf War. His foreign policy rhetoric is neither reflective nor analytical - rather, purely reactive. I hope the last 8 years have taught Americans about the importance of having a president who can think more than one move ahead on the chess board.