On South Carolina ETV’s “The Big Picture on the Radio”

Giuliani Cites Bush/Cheney Model as Good One to Follow

As He Continues to Level Barbs at Dem. Pres. Cand. Joe Biden

Columbia SC…Reacting to the just-released Winthrop/ETV Poll finding that almost 80 percent of Republicans and almost 80 percent of Democrats say that who the vice presidential candidate is matters a great deal, or somewhat, when they decide who to vote for as president, Rudolph Giuliani said on ETV’s “The Big Picture on the Radio Show” Friday that, “I would want a vice president who was a partner. Someone who was in on everything that was going on, so that that person could take over if, God forbid, something happened. You know, I was working for President Reagan, in fact I had breakfast with him, with a lot of other people, the day he was shot. So, I have been very, very close to a possible presidential assassination and seen how that all worked out that day…

“So, immediately it makes you realize that (the) choice of vice president is a choice that you have to do in the best interest of the country-and you owe that to your fellow citizens. In good conscience you have to pick someone that you believe can handle the job as well as you can.

“How do you pick a vice president?” Giuliani asked rhetorically. “I think Vice President Cheney and President Bush’s pick of Vice President Cheney is a good example of picking someone who is qualified to be president of the United States. That is number one-it’s paramount.”

Giuliani added that at the time Reagan was shot, he was acting associate attorney general and “had some responsibilities to get Hinkley into federal custody,” and handle the arraignment.

When Giuliani was asked by “The Big Picture on the Radio” host Andrew Gobeil if he has a preference for his vice-presidential pick, Giuliani said, “I don’t have anybody in mind. I think that would be presumptuous to do that. There are many, many good people in the Republican party, and their names get mentioned some times. We’ve got a luxury here. We’ve got a lot of good people.”

Then, obviously still smarting from Joe Biden’s attack on him during a Democratic debate early in the week, where Biden called Giuliani “the most under-qualified man since George W. Bush to seek the presidency,” and said of Giuliani that, “There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, and a verb and 9/11,” Giuliani took the opportunity to fire back during the ETV radio program.

When questioned by Gobeil about his assessment that Biden doesn’t have foreign policy experience, Giuliani retorted, “Has he ever been in the State Department? Has he ever been an executive? It’s one thing to speak about what you want, or even to pass laws about it, it’s another thing to actually do it.

“Foreign policy experience to me means being an ambassador, being in the State Department, being a law enforcement official, dealing with foreign countries.

“Look, it’s wonderful to be a legislator, but there’s one thing about being a legislator, you have no accountability. You can drop into some things. And you can have ideas about things.  But Joe Biden is one of those, big time, that has never run a city, never run a state, never run a government, never met a payroll…Here’s the difference, he’s never had the safety and security of millions of people on his shoulders. He can always point to somebody else being responsible for the safety and security…Joe likes to say that he’s really responsible for the reduction in crime in New York. Well, I mean OK, Joe passed a bill, along with President Clinton. He gave us some help, but believe me, if that’s all that happened, crime would be basically where it was 10, 12 years ago in New York…so I think the American people this time are going to want someone with practical experience.”

Finally, looking into his crystal ball and handicapping what will happen during the primary elections, Giuliani predicted, “Nobody is going to win all the primaries. Nobody ever has.”

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