2007_05_repubdeb1.jpgThe first debate amongst Republican presidential candidates was held last night at the Ronald Reagan Library. With former first lady Nancy Reagan sitting in the first row, Rudy Giuliani, as well as other candidates, mentioned the Gipper many times (partially due to the setting and prompting of moderators).

For instance, when explaining how he'd deal with Iran's president over nuclear weapons, Giuliani said, "He cannot have nuclear weapons. And he has to look at an American president and he has to see Ronald Reagan. Remember, they looked in Ronald Reagan's eyes, and in two minutes, they released the hostages."

However, abortion was a tricky topic. Giuliani and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romeny "struggled when press on their views on abortion." The NY Sun has a good description of how Rudy handled the A-word:

The debate illuminated differences between most of the field and Mr. Giuliani, who faced repeated questions about his position on abortion. The former mayor sought a nuanced view, saying early on that it would be "okay" if the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision; later in the night he stated clearly that he supports a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy. He said multiple times that he "hated" abortion, calling it a "very, very difficult matter of conscience."

"Ultimately, since it is a matter of conscience, I would respect a woman's right to make a different choice," he said.

In other words, he was a bit "wobbly." Giuliani also made a point of saying that Republicans needed to "reach out, bring in Democrats, bring in independents," but at any rate, he was the only candidate to mention being pro-choice. Romney admitted he was "wrong" in being pro-choice before but is now staunchly pro-life. In other controversial medical issues, only Giuliani and Senator John McCain expressed support for embryonic stem cell research (a pet cause of Nancy Reagan).

2007_05_repubdeb2.jpg

Most of the candidates supported President Bush's decision to stay in Iraq. And Giuliani did bring up 9/11, in answering "Every president, if you look back to Ike, was elected to fill the problem of the previous president. We are of course correcting all the time in this country. It’s how democracy works. How will you be different in any way from President George W. Bush?":

MR. GIULIANI: I think we should remind ourselves, because I remember it every day, that on September 11, 2001, we thought we were going to be attacked many, many times between then and now. We haven’t been. I believe we had a president who made the right decision at the right time -- on September 20th, 2001 -- to put us on offense against terrorists. I think history will remember him for that, and I think we as Republicans should remind people of that.

Here's a transcript of the debate; you can also see clips at MSNBC. The Daily News' Michael Goodwin writes, "John McCain was passionate and vigorous, Mitt Romney was quick and opportunistic and Rudy Giuliani looked uncomfortable and dodgy on the key question of abortion," but also complains with the poor format of these debates. The Politico's Roger Simon says Romney won the debate. The Caucus has a roundup of other reviews and the Post's readers say they generally liked Giuliani, noting, "You're never going to get a perfect candidate."

We have some of Giuliani's NYC-references after the jump.

Mayor Giuliani, how do we get back to Ronald Reagan’s "morning in America"?

MR. GIULIANI: You get back to it with an optimism. The same situation that I faced in New York City. When I became mayor of New York City, 65-70 percent thought New York City was going on the wrong track. And what I did was I set policies and programs of growth, of moving people toward prosperity, security, safety.

And what we can borrow from Ronald Reagan, since we are in his library, is that great sense of optimism that he had. He led by building on the strengths of America, not running America down. And we’re a country that people love to come to. They want to come to this country. We’re the shining city on the hill.

So we should solve our immigration issue, including illegal immigration, from our strengths not our weaknesses. We’re a country that has the greatest health-care system in the world.

It’s flawed. It needs to be fixed, but we should fix it from our strengths. We shouldn’t turn it into socialized medicine. Those are the things that Ronald Reagan taught us. You lead from optimism. You lead from hope, and we should never retreat in the face of terrorism. A terrible mistake. ....


------

MR. VANDEHEI: Mayor Giuliani, Bradley Winters of New York would like to know if there’s anything you learned or regret during your time as mayor in your dealings with the African-American community.

MR. GIULIANI: There’s a great deal that I learned and a great deal that I regret during the time I was mayor, and a great deal I was very, very satisfied with.

I tried very, very hard to treat everyone in New York City the same. We reduced crime by 67 percent. Some of the biggest beneficiaries of that would have been in the poorer neighborhoods of New York City, not necessarily the African-American community, but a lot of the communities of New York City. And I worked very, very hard to try to move hundreds of thousands of people out of welfare. I think -- we actually followed Tommy Thompson’s program, and we had the most successful welfare-to-work program in the country. We moved 600 and -- 60,000 people off welfare. And I think one of the reasons that crime is still down in New York today --

MR. MATTHEWS: That’s the time, Mayor.

MR. GIULIANI: Thank you.

.-----------------

MR. MATTHEWS: Let me get back to Governor -- Mayor Giuliani because I want to give you a chance on this. You became very well known for standing up against the use of public funds for what many people considered indecent exhibits at the Brooklyn Museum and places like that.

Why do you support the use of public funds for abortion?

MR. GIULIANI: I don’t. I support the Hyde amendment. I hate abortion. I wish people didn’t have abortions.

MR. MATTHEWS: So you’re not for funding at all?

MR. GIULIANI: I believe that the Hyde amendment should remain the law. States should make their decision. Some states decide to do it, most states decide not to do it. And I think that’s the appropriate way to have this decided.

MR. MATTHEWS: Should New York -- when you were mayor of New York, should they have been paying for -- the state should have been paying for --

MR. GIULIANI: That’s a decision New York made a long time ago, and New York --

MR. MATTHEWS: And where were you on that?

MR. GIULIANI: I supported it in New York. But I think in other places, people can come to a different decision.

MR. MATTHEWS: Thank you.
-----------------
Let me ask Mayor Giuliani, do you want to respond to this? Because it seems like across the room here there’s strong, unrelenting -- with the exception of Governor Gilmore -- an unrelenting pro-life position. You seem to have a nuanced position on this. Many people think you’re pro-choice. Could you define it in a couple of seconds?

MR. GIULIANI: Sure. This is a very, very difficult issue of conscience for many, many people. In my case, I hate abortion. I would encourage someone to not take that option. When I was mayor of New York city, I encouraged adoptions; adoptions went up 65-70 percent, abortions went down 16 percent.

But ultimately, since it is an issue of conscience, I would respect a woman’s right to make a different choice. I support the ban on partial-birth abortion, I support the Hyde amendment, but ultimately I think when you come down to that choice, you have to respect a woman’s right to make that choice differently than my conscience.

And I’d like to respond on spending if you (give me a little time later ?) --

--------

MR. VANDEHEI: Mayor Giuliani, Jessie (sp) from Madison wants to know, what do you consider to be your most significant weakness as a candidate for the president of the United States? (Laughter.)

MR. GIULIANI: The fact that they’re not all endorsing me.

I don’t know.

I mean, I think my strengths outweigh my weaknesses. I have plenty of weaknesses and I kind of work on them, but I think that I’m a person who’s an optimist. I try to look at the half-full glass rather than a half-empty glass. The only way I could turn around a city like New York that was considered the crime capital of America and turn it into the safest large city in America is to kind of inculcate some of the Ronald Reagan optimism and look to try to create results that people thought were impossible, and we did.