Giuliani Talks To CBS About Keynote Speech

Exclusive: Former Candidate On McCain, Obama And His Role At The GOP Convention

(CBS)  Former New York City Mayor and presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani has been announced as the keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota. Giuliani spoke to CBS News' Ryan Corsaro by telephone from California, where he is campaigning for Sen. John McCain. Giuliani talked about why he listens to Hillary Clinton, what he thinks of Senator Obama’s experience, and how he’ll write his keynote speech. Read the full transcript below.

CBS News: What’s your reaction to being the keynote speaker for the Republican National Convention?

Mayor Giuliani: I’m very honored to do it. I believe that this election, and I have as a candidate and a supporter of John McCain, I believe this election is a very important election. Maybe - you know we always say this - maybe the most important. But it is the most important because there’s going to be a real change in direction one way or the other. And I believe the change in direction provided by Senator McCain is going to be critical for the country.

CBS News: What are going to be the main differences between the parties that you’re going to point out at the convention?

Mayor Giuliani: I haven’t written my speech yet - this is not my speech. It may or may not be so I’ll tell you what the main differences are. I think there’s one overriding main difference between John McCain and Barack Obama, and it’s the clearest one - and it’s a factual one, not personal one - it’s experience. John McCain has experience, Barack Obama does not. And it reflects itself in the way in which you react to world issues and it underlines all the mistakes Barack Obama makes. The most recent one being one of his advisers going to Syria, conducting discussions with the Syrian government, then coming to Israel to meet with Senator Obama. They [the Obama campaign] are not disclosing that and now the adviser is saying, you know, we’re going to see if they were taken advantage of or not.

CBS News: Which adviser in particular are you referring to?

Mayor Giuliani: [Daniel] Kurtzer, who right before, as I understand it from a newspaper article, right before he joined Senator Obama in Israel, went on a mission with a group who was paid for by among other things, Syrian corporations, went to a conference in Syria and met with the Syrian foreign minister and during the discussion, according to the adviser, he told the Syrian foreign minister that they should make some progress on peace discussions with Israel so that the next president can come into a situation where there’s been some progress made. And then he went to - he was with Senator Obama when Senator Obama was in Israel and none of that was disclosed. His meeting in Syria wasn’t disclosed. The substance of the meetings weren’t disclosed. The people who paid for it weren’t disclosed. And then when he was asked about it, I guess recently, could this be seen as [Syria] being used, he said that remains to be seen.

CBS News: And what do you think this reflects about the Obama campaign in particular?

Mayor Giuliani: It’s a lack of experience. Remember - this goes back to something Hillary Clinton pointed out, maybe with the most effect, and that is when [Obama] was asked whether he would negotiate with Assad, Castro, Ahmadinejad, and he said that he would negotiate with them without preconditions. And Hillary pointed out - I don’t remember her exact language - but I believe she used words like immature, or inexperienced, or naive. That has continually been displayed by Senator Obama and his campaign. A meeting with the Assad government that isn’t disclosed by an adviser to Senator Obama right before he goes to Israel, where the person gives advice on how to negotiate with the United States to the Assad government is not a very experienced thing to do. At least you should disclose it if you’re going to be transparent.

And I thought the reaction the two of them had to the situation in Georgia indicates the major difference. Senator McCain’s reaction was immediate. Speaking to two people, he immediately reacted. His reaction at the beginning is the same reaction he has today, it’s the same he has a year ago. It’s a position that’s been developed over twenty years of study, including traveling to Georgia, at least three times. Traveling to the Ukraine, Russia, other places. Senator Obama hasn’t been to most of these places and his reaction showed it. He had two or three different reiterations - his first reaction sounding very much like Georgia and Russia are equally to blame for this. And then he spoke to his advisors, made another statement, and then finally a third statement.

Senator Obama is struggling to learn what Senator McCain already knows, and I think that’s going to be the major issue for a country that is facing substantial problems -- not just foreign policy, military - but also economic. We have an experienced senator who’s been a leader, a person who’s had a mind of his own, not a typical Republican or Democrat, whose searched for bipartisan solutions. On the other hand we have a highly inexperienced senator who has been the most liberal member of the United States Senate.

CBS News: Now Mayor, Senator McCain said last week that he did not want to politicize the issue of Georgia any further. Do you think Georgia is going to be a defining issue for the Republicans as far as separating themselves from the Democrats?

Mayor Giuliani: No, it won’t be, because for Senator Obama, Georgia is just one of many examples of Senator Obama’s inexperience in foreign policy and military policy. So it’s part of a list that goes back to the one first noted by Hillary Clinton. We are merely repeating what Hillary Clinton noted three months ago - that he is inexperienced in the area of foreign policy.

CBS News: In regards to your keynote speech, are you going to be writing it yourself and is there anything that you have in mind, maybe left over from your experience out on trail as a candidate that you’ll be adding?

Mayor Giuliani: I’m sure there will be! I am writing it myself…

CBS News: I didn’t mean that in to be a disrespectful question…

Mayor Giuliani: No, no, no - I know you didn’t. I’ve already - I’ll write it myself but I’ll also work with John Avlon and Ken Kurson who helped me write speeches during the campaign, and we all met and talked about it already, so we’re all working on various ideas and writing out different drafts. That’s what I usually do. I usually write something out. Then the person I’m working with writes something out, and then we kind of put it together. But a speech like this, you’re really not going to decide until four or five days before, because the issues could change. Who knows? Who knows what’s going to happen between now and then - but we’ll get a general idea of it, and then we’ll change it about three or four days before.

CBS News: Being the keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention is a big honor for you - you had a big role at the last convention. What does it feel like to be picked after this long year as the current speaker?

Mayor Giuliani: It is a great responsibility and a great honor and it is particularly so because of my strong personal feelings for Senator McCain, which, you might remember, I indicated once during the debate, when I said if I wasn’t running, I’d be supporting him.

CBS News: Mayor, I listened to every single one of your speeches and I don’t recall you almost ever saying anything negative about John McCain - it seems like you’ve been a solemn supporter of him for a long time.

Mayor Giuliani: And I truly believe this is an enormously important decision for America that we have to get right and that John McCain is about as well-qualified to be President of the United States as any man who has ever run for president. So it’s going to be a great honor to be a keynote speaker, not only a Republican convention, but a convention that’s going to nominate a truly great and heroic American for President of the United States.

[kansas1946]

ugggh another wasp talking up the scorned, corrupt republican party. who cares what he says? one unethical man bumping up another. how f@#$ing boring and irrelevant to us average americans. please, repub rats, take your village idiots and go away. you''''ve done nothing good for eight long years, except mouth off.


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Posted by smart4peace at 09:59 PM : Aug 21, 2008
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Amen. Well said. People who put party before country are not patriots, they are parrots.

[c0mm0n_sense]

The youngest of Barack Obama%u2019s half siblings has told of his shame about living in a shack and existing on a dollar a month whilst his brother plans to become the most powerful man in the world.

With the Democratic Convention in Denver just days away, Italian Vanity Fair magazine tracked George Hussein Onyango Obama to a 6ft by 9ft wooden shed in Kenya.

The difference in the men''s lifestyles could not be more dramatic. Mr Obama, 47, travels the world with an army of bodyguards, whilst his brother defends himself with his own bare hands on the rough streets of Haruma, a Nairobi shanty town.

%u201CIf anyone says something about my surname, I say we are not related. I am ashamed,%u201D George told the magazine.

"No-one knows who I am. I live here on less than a dollar a month.

"I live like a recluse, no-one knows I exist."

George, at 25 the youngest of Obama%u2019s father%u2019s seven children, has met his famous big brother just twice.

He was just five when Mr Obama visited Kenya for the first time in 1988 and made a special trip out to his mother Jael%u2019s shanty home.

[kansas1946]

Obamas transparancy is painfully obvious, but all people can do is point out that Guiliani is divorced. How sick. Posted by WhyAfghan
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Divorced??? I don''t think divorce is the issue her. What I do think is the issue is that a man who cheats on his wife, and moves his mistress into his home while his wife and children are still in residence, is picked to represent the party of "family values." I think that is the issue.

[jerr11]

Giuliani is the perfect keynote speaker.

He is the very embodiment of GOP values.

Three wives (reflecting GOP fanily values)

And an uncaany ability to turn a national disaster into personal profit!

[dennisam01]

10 things you should know about John McCain (but probably don''t):

John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has "evolved," yet he''s continued to oppose key civil rights laws.1
According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain "will make Cheney look like Gandhi."2
His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban.3

McCain opposes a woman''s right to choose. He said, "I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned."4
The Children''s Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children''s health care bill last year, then defended Bush''s veto of the bill.5
He''s one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a "second job" and skip their vacations.6

[dennisam01]

Many of McCain''s fellow Republican senators say he''s too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: "The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He''s erratic. He''s hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me."7
McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates.8
McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his "spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America''s founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a "false religion." McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God''s punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church "the Antichrist" and a "false cult."9
He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0%u2014yes, zero%u2014from the League of Conservation Voters last year.10

[whyafghan]

nokoolaid - why refute facts with someone who is already decided and stereotyped an entire political party. Must be rather awkward to have all that hate filled emotions bottled up? What a shame.

[whyafghan]

Typical GOP. Ignore the truth. That''''s all you got out of it - he''''s divorced? He cheated, openly, on his wife and is the antithesis of everything the GOP stands for on issues like abortion, gun control and the like. His own family (from one of his various spouses) won%u2019t even talk to him. The guy is a one-note joke and would have no career at all (aside from playing in drag on Saturday Night Live) if not for his standing at the right place and the right time during 9/11.
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Posted by nokoolaid

Your hatred of the Republican Party is showing, but that was expected.

[stn_sage]

There has to be plenty of other republicans who would be willing to do the keynote speech other than Giuliani!

He''s not exactly the best image when it comes to family values, honest, and integrity!

It makes me wonder: are they trying to have a bad convention?!

[briannorwood]

Guiliani Keynote Speech:

"Hello, my name is Rudy Guilliani. 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, 9/11. Thank you."

[whyafghan]

Obamas transparancy is painfully obvious, but all people can do is point out that Guiliani is divorced. How sick.

[whitemale08]

If "Royal" from the Adams Family was the first choice of junkyard dogs Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh then how come they''''re not ranting and raving about Guilliani''s stance on "Born Alive Abortions"?

Republicans are by definition hypocrites.

[whitemale08]

If "Royal" from the Adams Family was the first choice of junkyard dogs Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh then how come they''re not ranting and raving about "Born Alive Abortions"?

Republicans are by definition hypocrites.

[rwassel]

Wow. So, they''re gonna pick an pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, three time divorcee whose right hand man had illegal immigrants working for him.

How does that make all you right-wing nutjobs feel?

This is going to be hilarious!

[sleepyric]

All I hear is "inexperienced"...hell, that''s what I''m looking for!....I don''t want some 20 years Washington wank in office...I want someone young, smart and driven to be president. Guiliani?? What''s he gonna do besides mention 911 about 50 times...your star has faded Rudy...who gives a tinker''s *** about your speech!..

[wardoglrs]

Rudy Giuliani and McCain are not Repubs. For the most part none of the people in congress are what you might think. There hypocrites and its time for a CHANGE alright and that is to get rid of then all.

Lok To Dr Paul or Bob Barr and end the two party system

[benighse]

Maybe they''''ll bring FAMILY VALUES KEYNOTE SPEAKER RUDY GIULIANI onto the Republican Convention stage with the tune: Your Cheatin'''' Heart, in the background, and then he can introduce the FAMILY VALUES DIVORCE QUARTET of Giuliani, Fred Thompson, John Mccain and the background image of Ronald Reagan jointly singing Tammy Wynette''''s D.I.V.O.R.C.E. ....As the Republicans have always said, the best way to protect Marriage is with Divorce! Go figure!

[Stratmaster7]

YES!!!! If this slimebag talks at the convention it has got to give Obama a 3 or 4 point bump just from Guiliani''s hypocritical creepiness!

[kansas1946]

That''s nice. A serial adulterer speaking for the (fake) family values party. Priceless.

[benighse]

YUP...Giuliani says Obama is inexperienced....He specifically noted that both he and John Mccain have had more wives than Barack and are thus more experienced with more --families-- values. He further explained that they have more experience with divorce, and the economics of divorce....and that marriage must be further protected by having more marriages after divorce....yes indeed, the new republican plank: Marriage must be protected for Divorce...the family values party...