Giuliani Makes It Clear: 'Leave My Family Alone'

Friday, August 17, 2007

NOBODY'S BUSINESS

Giuliani Makes It Clear: 'Leave My Family Alone'

As Rudolph W. Giuliani has jumped to the top of most national polls for the GOP presidential race, a lingering question has been whether his recent bitter divorce and the fact that he's on his third marriage will drag him down among social conservatives.

Yesterday, the issue flared up at a town hall meeting in Derry, N.H. As her 5-year-old daughter played nearby, Katherine Prudhomme-O'Brien, 36, asked Giuliani why he should expect loyalty from GOP voters when his own children aren't backing him.

Giuliani's 21-year-old son, a student at Duke University, has been quoted as saying that he does not expect to campaign for his father. Last week, Slate, the online magazine, reported that Giuliani's 17-year-old daughter belonged to a Facebook group of Barack Obama supporters.

Giuliani's answer to the question about his kids, according to the Associated Press: "I love my family very, very much and will do anything for them. There are complexities in every family in America. The best thing I can say is kind of, 'Leave my family alone,' just like I'll leave your family alone."

Giuliani isn't the only GOP candidate with a complex family situation, and Democratic candidates so far seem not to be heeding his plea to leave his family out of the race. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), whose first wife died in a car accident and who has been married to his second wife for more than 30 years, said this week: "I can hardly wait for one of these guys on the other side to tell me about family values."

-- Alec MacGillis

CAMPAIGN CHALLENGE

Edwards Tries to Put Obama On Anti-Lobbying Hot Seat

Former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) is stepping up his anti-Washington rhetoric -- and trying to rope Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) into the debate.

The Edwards campaign on Wednesday sent Obama a letter asking him to cosign a statement addressed to Democratic Party leaders that asks them to stop accepting campaign contributions from federal lobbyists. Obama has made his refusal to accept such donations a signature part of his campaign to change Washington.

And at a visit to the Iowa State Fair the same day, Edwards drew loud applause when he called for a shift in the way business is done inside the Beltway. "I want to make it clear to America that we are not the party of Washington insiders," Edwards said.

Later, talking to reporters, Edwards took a subtle shot at Obama, saying that being gentle with corporate interests -- pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, oil companies -- is not the way to effect change.

Obama, in promising to end the cozy relationship between lobbyists and lawmakers, has done so in a relatively conciliatory way -- saying that lobbyists can have a seat at the table but not buy all the chairs. His campaign issued a statement in response to Edwards's appeal, saying that Obama "appreciates what John Edwards is saying about lobbyists" but that it is not enough to just refuse money from them. "We have to curb their influence," the statement said.

-- Anne E. Kornblut

LOOKING AT NUMBERS

When It Comes to Polling, Results Can Ride on Wording

A new poll shows Democratic presidential candidates decidedly out of the mainstream in their universal opposition to the Supreme Court's recent decision to limit how race can be used in public school assignments.

But are they really out of step?

In a June forum at Howard University, the Democratic candidates lined up against the court's decision to restrict school boards' use of race in specific school assignment, using the ruling -- announced the same day as the debate -- to display their bona fides before the largely African American audience.

But in the new Quinnipiac University poll, 71 percent of registered voters said that they agree with the court's ruling; only 24 percent said they disagree with it. Moreover, the poll shows that majorities of Democrats (64 percent), Republicans (79 percent) and independents (71 percent) alike agree that "public schools may not consider an individual's race when deciding which students are assigned to specific schools."

Does this mean that Democrats are tone-deaf in their firm opposition to the court ruling? Maybe not.

Quinnipiac's question asked respondents whether race should be a factor in school assignments, and in the absence of an alternative, few said it should. What was shown in the most recent Washington Post-ABC News national poll is that giving some context to the court's decision yielded more nuance and a different result.

In the poll, one primary criticism of the court ruling was included, namely that the decision would be a setback for integration efforts. In response, 56 percent of all respondents said they disapproved of the court ruling in the school race case; 40 percent approved. Republicans and independents were evenly split on the decision, while nearly seven in 10 Democrats were lined up against it.

So maybe the Democratic candidates aren't at odds with the public after all, especially with the majority of Democrats who oppose the substance of the Supreme Court's decision.

-- Jon Cohen

Cohen is The Post's polling director.