Giuliani Voices Opinions On the General Election

LOOKING AHEAD

Giuliani Voices Opinions On the General Election

Rudy Giuliani has a fight on his hands to win the Republican presidential nomination, but he already has the general election well scoped out.

I talked with the former New York mayor about this aboard his campaign bus on Saturday afternoon in New Hampshire as he was rolling from Winnisquam to Concord. He had just finished purchasing a fancy Christmas wreath at a nursery and seemed in a relaxed, if not exactly laid back, mood as we headed south. At one point I mentioned something Barack Obama had said recently, which is that he believes the Republicans will be coming after the Democratic nominee on two issues in 2008 -- terrorism and immigration -- and that Democrats had better be ready.

Giuliani laughed. "He's missing a few others," he said. "I don't think they realize how far down the road they've gone toward much more government-controlled medicine, and I don't think they realize how far down the road they went on tax increases, with [New York Rep.] Charlie Rangel's plan. Obama, Edwards and Hillary [Clinton] have bought into 20 to 30 percent tax increases. Those would be historically high tax increases."

I asked Giuliani to assess the political climate for Republicans in 2008, given the low approval ratings of President Bush, the fact that the GOP as a party is less popular today than it has been in a long time and the reality that it is very difficult for one party to win the White House three times in a row.

He suggested that I had missed a few things in my question. "I think there are pros and cons for both of us," he said. "You've just stated all the pros for the Democrats. Here are the pros for us. When you look at a head-to-head matchup, the generic Republican-Democrat thing falls away, and just as often as not, I'm ahead of Hillary nationally as she's ahead of me. "

He also said the Democratic nominee will have a real burden defending the Democratic-controlled Congress. "There is one group more unpopular than the president," he said. "It's the Democratic Congress. Nancy Pelosi. Harry Reid. . . . I think a Republican candidate will have a really good argument: 'You've got to elect me to protect against a Democratic Congress,' if there's going to be a Democratic Congress."

-- Dan Balz

MONEY MATTERS