Giuliani Defends His Absence From Iowa
Candidate tells ABC News his focus is on a nationwide campaign.
CLIVE, Iowa, Dec. 29, 2007— -- In his final campaign swing through Iowa, a state where he's barely competing, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Iowans should not be offended by his lack of attention to the first-in-the-nation caucus state.
"What I say to the people of Iowa is that we're running a campaign in 20 states or 29 states, or however many there are between the 3rd (of January) and the 5th (of February)," Giuliani said after speaking to his supporters in his small campaign headquarters west of Des Moines. "If you look at my schedule, I think I've probably campaigned as much or more than anyone but I've done it proportionately throughout the country. I probably have the most appearances in California and the most appearances in Florida."
But Iowans, it was pointed out, like to have disproportionate attention.
"That is all well and good when you have one primary then a large amount time to the next primary and it all goes out over a three- or four-month period," Giuliani said. "But when you're looking at a one-month period with 29 primaries, nobody is going to win all of them, so the question is who can win the most of them?"
Giuliani's strategy has long been to focus on winning larger states such as Florida, which holds its contest at the end of January, and the Super Duper Tuesday states like New York, Illinois, and California, which hold primaries on Feb. 5.
Giuliani made his remarks in an interview with ABC News, excerpts of which aired on "World News" on Saturday. More will air Sunday on "Good Morning America."
Giuliani's first national television ad was launched Friday, also airing in New Hampshire and Florida. Dealing with the subject of terrorism, the ad began running one day after the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
"Obviously that decision was made before we knew about the terrible events in Pakistan and it was not intended at all to coincide with that," Giuliani said.
The reason his first ad discussed that subject, he said, was because his campaign's top commitment to voters "is to keep America on the offense and the terrorists' war against us. That is the No. 1 overwriting commitment that I make to the American people and it's the one that I think the next president of the United States is going to have to focus on the most."
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