Thursday, December 20, 2007

Rudy Giuliani is our choice in the GOP

If there is one thing on which Republicans ought to agree it is that their party needs a full-body makeover.

It isn't that the GOP's historical message is flat or that the American people have rejected it. What has happened is that too many leaders — Republicans and Democrats — have distanced themselves from the people they were elected to serve.

It is clear the American people want change — change that will make their needs and wishes relevant and are reflected in the way future leaders conduct the people's business.

The field of candidates for the Republican nomination for president is wide and in some ways disparate. Even so, there is at least one who stands out among the rest — a candidate who is not afraid to lead; a candidate who understands the threat to our way of life; a candidate who will not talk down to the people; a candidate who believes in government as a servant of the people.

Rudy Giuliani is our choice for the Republican nomination for president.

If Republicans have any chance of having their lease renewed on the White House they must adopt and develop leaders like Giuliani — someone who raised one of the world's great cities out of despair and returned it to the pride it earned over more than two centuries. It was Giuliani who made New York's streets and sidewalks safe again. It was Giuliani who stood atop the rubble of 9/11 and vowed to lead in making New York whole again.

Rudy Giuliani represents the core of Republican thought. He is the kind of Republican who will appeal to the people who elected and re-elected Ronald Reagan. He is not afraid to go to the people for his strength, knowing that in America it is the people who rule and that those they elect serve.

Giuliani's views on the issues are clear.

Giuliani knows America must fight the war against "Islamic terrorism" to a victorious conclusion. He knows there is no quick and easy way out of Iraq, just as he knows the United States must play an active diplomatic role toward peace elsewhere in the Middle East.

Giuliani sums up the war in clear terms.

"As soon as they stop trying to kill us, then we'll make peace with them," the former mayor of New York told a meeting with executives and editors of Foster's Daily Democrat.

Giuliani believes in fiscal discipline — someone who cut taxes 23 times in New York. He believes the wealth of the nation belongs in the pockets of the people.

Giuliani, a top official in the Justice Department when Ronald Reagan was president, promises to nominate federal judges who will observe their constitutional role in interpreting the Constitution, not judges who attempt to legislate from the bench. He is firm on the matter of a clear separation of powers among the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.

These are just a few issues on which we agree with Rudy Giuliani. There are others, just as there are issues on which we might disagree and will try to address in the days and weeks ahead.

Giuliani avoids generalities and obfuscations. What you hear from him is what he believes and how he feels. There is no tap dancing around the great issues on Giuliani's part.

Rudy Giuliani cares for the future of his country just as do the people of New Hampshire and our nation's other 49 states.

What we have been looking for these past few weeks are two candidates we feel are the best their political parties have to offer. We think we've found them.

We urge our readers — from Hampton to Campton and throughout eastern New Hampshire — to think about the Jan. 8 primaries and cast their votes thoughtfully. There is too much at stake in 2008 to not do it.
 

Copyright © 2007 Geo. J. Foster Company.  Reprinted by permission of Jon Breen, editor of the opinion pages (12/28/07).
 
 

NOTES:
See also the paper's endorsement of Rudy Giuliani.  Editor of the opinion pages Jon Breen wrote the following:

We met with many of the candidates for an hour each -- Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, and Tom Tancredo. A few candidates could not be accommodated because of timing conflicts or reasons unknown to the newspaper.

The meetings were attended by and participated in by executives and editors of the newspaper and were all on the record. A reporter and a photographer were also in attendance and n account of the exchanges appeared on Page 1 of the the following day's newspaper or as soon as the day's news break allowed.

The endorsement process itself is uncomplicated.

Foster's Daily Democrat has been continually owned and managed by the Foster Family since 1873 and, with counsel from some editors, it has been members of the Foster Family who have determined the editorial position of the newspaper on major issues, not the least of which is the endorsement of candidates for president.
While the newspaper has a conservative tradition and does lean toward Republican candidates for high office. it does endorse what it believes to be qualified candidates of both political parties in their respective primaries.