Giuliani: Bush's dream ticket

Scotland Sun 29 Feb 2004
Giuliani: Bush's dream ticket
BEN MCCONVILLE IN NEW YORK

US PRESIDENT George Bush is ready to pull off the biggest shock of this year's election campaign by naming Rudy Giuliani as his running mate at the Republican convention in Manhattan in September.

Giuliani remains the most popular politician in the US and speculation is mounting that Bush will announce the former New York mayor as his vice presidential candidate as the country marks the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

The Republican party has already carried out canvassing of voters to assess how much support Giuliani has across the country and, according to reports, received high levels of public support.

The public has not forgotten Giuliani's stoic leadership in the dark days after 9/11, when his words and actions became a beacon for the American people.

Analysts believe Bush, who lags behind Democratic frontrunner Senator John Kerry in opinion polls, would benefit from tapping into Giuliani's popularity.

Dozens of polls since 2001 have shown Giuliani to be the most popular politician in the US, even though he has not held public office since Michael Bloomberg took over the post of mayor of New York in 2002.

Leading commentator Al Neuharth, the man who created USA Today, said Bush would do what his father did not - namely dump his vice president, currently Dick Cheney.

Neuharth said the ideal time for the announcement would be at the Republican convention in September, commemorating 9/11 at Ground Zero.

Bringing Giuliani on board would be a massive boost for Bush, who is lining up to run as a ?'war President', concentrating on the war on terror rather than the war in Iraq.

Neuharth said: "No one stirs us more on anti-terrorism than Giuliani, for his handling of the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center while he was mayor of New York City.

"Bush and his political signal callers actually have tested Giuliani nationwide, during the 2002 mid-term elections and since. They like what they saw.

"Bush's popularity has slipped sharply, and the election will be much closer than many thought a few months ago. The Bush administration will be under fire, particularly on Iraq."

He said losing Cheney and possibly defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, could help protect Bush from criticism over Iraq. "They clearly were the hawks who helped Bush decide to go after Saddam Hussein," Neuharth said.

Republican activists expressed their admiration for Giuliani and said he could prove a major boost at the polls.

Jerry Roe, a Michigan historian and former state Republican Party executive director, said: "Let's put it this way, I'd love to see Giuliani as vice president. I think Cheney's health could be a factor. And then add up all the negatives on the Halliburton thing."

Bob Tennant, a Republican activist and associate editor of the Delcot Times, said many in the party would like to see Giuliani run.

He said: "You let your mind go numb, dream, and you could convince yourself it could possibly be true. "Giuliani is perhaps the guy the Republican National Committee secretly wishes could run for the Oval Office.

"He's the Republican no Democrat could say anything negative about. He saved New York City. Twice. Once before 9/11, and once after."

Under the headline "NYers want Rudy back on duty", a poll in the New York Post last September revealed that 62% of voters across New York state wanted him to return to public service either as governor, senator or a return to mayor.

The poll showed he would beat Hillary Clinton in a race for senator of New York by 57% to 40%. There is also significant support for Giuliani as a Republican presidential candidate.

Cheney, has come under fire for his links to the firm Halliburton. He was its chief executive for five years and the firm was awarded multibillion dollar contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq.

Cheney is also in a poor state of health and, at the age of 63, has had four heart attacks. For the past three years a device in his chest has ensured his heart pumps normally.

In the White House he has an influential - some believe decisive - say on the strategic issues of the day, from long-term energy policy to invading Iraq.

But his leading role in foreign policy has left his fingerprints all over the hyping of intelligence about Iraqi weapons.

He visited the CIA several times before the war, and his chief of staff, Lewis ?'Scooter' Libby, tried to persuade Colin Powell, the secretary of state, to ?'sex up' the case against Saddam Hussein by sending him memos bursting with unsubstantiated claims.

Hardly a week passes without a new investigation into Halliburton's operations in Iraq, from overcharging $61m for fuel deliveries to billing the government for thousands of soldiers who did not exist.

National Journal, the ultimate Washington insider's magazine, this week put Cheney's picture on its cover with the title: "Just the Ticket? Does having Dick Cheney as his running mate help or hurt George W Bush in 2004?"

A Time/CNN poll this month found that only 43% of Americans thought Cheney should be on the Republican election ticket.

Republican sources said that if Cheney considered himself to be a liability he would step down as vice president.

Bill Frist, the party leader in the Senate and a former doctor, has been suggested as a possible replacement. But Giuliani has the charisma, the finances and the backers within the Republican party.

He has so far declined to say whether he wants to return to public office, but has appeared to have been quietly canvassing support.

Since leaving the mayor's office he has headed his own security consulting firm and has appeared as a regular pundit on cable news channels such of Fox News.

Barring a convenient capture of Osama bin Laden in October, Giuliani is Bush's best hope of capturing a popular tide ahead of elections on November 2.