As expected, Rudy spent some time on the war on terror, specifically the war in Iraq.  I felt one thing he said was especially powerful.  He was reacting to the surrender funding bill just passed by the House and Senate.

When in any conflict has a country agreed to retreat, set a date for that retreat, printed up a schedule for it, and delivered it to the enemy? (paraphrased)

He buffered that criticism of Congress by confirming that he doesn't question or downplay the patriotism of Democrats.  As he said it, we don't need to argue patriotism - nothing good will come from that argument - and there are good and bad people in both parties.  What he did question was the judgment of the leadership on Capitol Hill.  Retreating by setting a timetable is just very poor judgment.

The next topic was education.  He believes this issue can be a winning issue for Republicans, calling it the civil rights issue of our day.  During his time as mayor of New York City, a private agency offered 2500 scholarships to students to attend an alternative school.  The school board there would not let the applications for this program be displayed in the public schools in the city.  Nevertheless, the parents of 168,000 kids applied for those 2500 scholarships.  The message delivered by the liberal public school board there was clear, he said.  "We know better about your kids and their education than you do."

As we expand alternative forms of education, competition becomes a part of the public education system, and competition will improve existing public schools.  They will be transformed from a job protection institution to one that is about the kids.  Emphatically he declared that Democrats don't care more about poor kids than Republicans do.

Continuing on the economic front, Giuliani discussed health care and underlined a basic difference in the views of fiscal conservatives and fiscal liberals.  He said that difference boils down to the goal of a private economy vs. a collectivist economy.  The Democrats in Congress, he said, are rushing headlong toward socialized medicine.  That's exactly the opposite direction he thinks we should be heading.  Instead, he put forth the notion that consumers, not the government or corporations, should buy their own health insurance, much the way auto insurance is purchased, and the premiums should be paid for with pre-tax dollars.  The choice would then be ours how much coverage, how high a deductible.  For those who cannot afford it, vouchers would be provided to assist them.

By taking the bureaucrat out of the equation, competition would enable health care services to improve while holding down cost increases.  As an example, Giuliani highlighted the transition seen in the plasma TV market.  Over the last decade or so, these TVs have seen a dramatic decrease in price while becoming better and more technologically advanced.  Health care, when freed from the inflation-producing control of government and corporate institutionalism, will experience much the same phenomenon, he said.

Giuliani closed his remarks by returning to the subject of the War on Terror, a war, he said, that is not all about Iraq.  A small but significant portion of Islam, the Islamo-fascists, are a loosely-affiliated, global enemy wanting to come to our soil and kill us.  Therefore, we must remain on offense.  These terrorists, he declared, respect strength and take advantage of weakness, so we must use everything within our power to counter them, including but not limited to aggressive military action in Iraq and electronic surveillance.  He concluded by affirming that we are not responsible for the war now confronting us.  The terrorists are.

After the speech, the Mayor opened up the floor for questions.  One questioner asked him if he thought social conservatives would be able to put aside their dislike of his social positions and vote for him based on the "larger picture" of national security.  I personally have strong misgivings about Giuliani as a presidential candidate due to his pro-choice and pro-civil-unions stances.  One thing I must say I admired about him, though, was his willingness to own up to those positions even to this conservative audience.  Rather than try to put a conservative spin on his social views, he affirmed them.  For that I respect him.  While very short on merit in my book when it comes to social issues, I have to hand it to him for having the courage of his convictions.  I do believe he would bring strong and principled leadership to the White House, but I am still deeply troubled at the prospect of voting for him.