Giuliani Plans Full-Page Ad Defending Petraeus

Friday, September 14, 2007

NEWSPAPER DUEL

Giuliani Plans Full-Page Ad Defending Petraeus

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani on Thursday submitted a full-page ad to the New York Times attacking his rival, Hillary Clinton, and defending Gen. David Petraeus.

In the ad, Giuliani accuses Democrats of "orchestrated attacks on General Petraeus" and says that Clinton's comment about needing to suspend disbelief to accept the general's arguments was a "character attack" on Petraeus.

Maria Comella, a spokeswoman for Giuliani, declined to confirm that the Times was running the ad or to say how much the campaign paid for it. Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis declined to comment about the ad or its cost.

At a campaign stop in Atlanta, Giuliani defended Petraeus against a MoveOn.Org ad that ran in the Times on Monday and that lambasted him as "General Betray Us." He criticized the Times for giving the liberal group a heavily discounted rate for what he called an "abominable" ad.

MoveOn.org said it paid $65,000 for the ad, far less than the standard $181,000 rate for a full-page ad. Mathis said the content of the ad was not considered and that there are many different rates for a full-page ad.

"The advertising folks don't see the content of the ad when the rate is quoted," she said. She said the Times has a "standby" rate of $65,000 that does not guarantee a particular placement on a particular day. A source familiar with the Giuliani ad said the Times charged the campaign $65,000.

In addition to criticizing the Times, Giuliani took aim at Clinton, accusing her of calling Petraeus a liar at a Senate hearing. Giuliani said her questioning of Petraeus was "typical" of her.

"Hillary Clinton, the New York Times, MoveOn.org should apologize for what they did," Giuliani said. "Their excessive political view led them to character assassination."

Clinton spokesman Phil Singer responded: "Mayor Giuliani supports George Bush's Iraq policy and believes it is working. Senator Clinton knows it isn't and will keep up her efforts to end the war. She believes the best way to honor our heroes in Iraq is to bring them home."

-- Michael D. Shear

LONG-AWAITED POLICY

Clinton Is Set to Introduce Rest of Health-Care Plan

Sen. Hillary Clinton is planning to roll out the rest of her health-care plan on Monday in a speech in Des Moines, rounding out a policy proposal that has been in the works for months.

Clinton has given few clues as to how her policy will differ from those already introduced by Sen. Barack Obama and former senator John Edwards, though she has hinted that she will address questions about her approach to the lobbying industry -- attacked by her rivals as too weak. "I intend to dramatically rein in the influence of the insurance companies," she said during a forum hosted by Yahoo, Slate and the Huffington Post on Wednesday, "because frankly I think that they have worked to the detriment of our economy and our health-care system."

Clinton, whose unsuccessful attempt to overhaul the health-care system in the early 1990s led her to be criticized as a fan of "big government," has tried to turn the botched effort into a plus. She often says on the campaign trail that she at least has tried to fix health care and has "the scars to prove it."

But her opponents are gearing up to undercut her message by pointing out that her failure during her husband's administration ultimately set back the movement for health-care overhaul, and by arguing that she has done little to remedy it while in the Senate.

-- Anne E. Kornblut

UN-INTERACTIVE

In Online Debate, Mash-Ups Not Included

It was the online presidential debate mash-up that wasn't. At least not as of yesterday.

Viewers logging on to yesterday's online debate -- sponsored by the Huffington Post, Slate and Yahoo -- were supposed to be able to pick and choose videos of the Democratic candidates answering questions from Bill Maher and Charlie Rose. Not only that, they were then to create their own debate by "mashing up" the videos, remix-style.

But alas, it wasn't to be. Yahoo decided to not put the mash-up-able footage on its site for the time being, leaving visitors with nothing more than individual videos of candidates being asked standard questions (Iraq, education, health care) and giving standard answers.

But leave it to the irreverent Maher, the comedian and HBO talk show host, to add some attitude to the affair. Maher served as the wild card, and indeed he was. He asked Sen. Hillary Clinton: "Why should Americans vote for someone who can be fooled by George Bush?" He asked Sen. Chris Dodd: "Can you give me a good reason why . . . marijuana should be illegal?"

-- Jose Antonio Vargas