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It's already Clinton/Giuliani
10/10/2007 14:25 - (SA)
Washington - Rudolph Giuliani and Hillary Clinton are trading blows in a tantalising preview of a possible 2008 election clash, despite both facing intense battles just to secure their party nominations.
Giuliani's attacks on Clinton bolster the ex-mayor of New York's strategy of courting conservative Republicans, many of whom despise the former first lady.
While Clinton has been reluctant to attack Giuliani directly, her latest campaign advertisement touts her leadership as a New York senator after September 11, 2001.
The spot appears to augur a duel over Giuliani's legacy on the attacks - the underpinning of his campaign, should they square off for the White House.
Tough-talking Giuliani is using Clinton's domination of most Democratic polls, three months before first nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, as a selling point for his own front-running campaign.
'Only candidate that can beat her'
"Mayor Giuliani is clearly the strongest candidate to run against Senator Clinton in the general election and is likely the only Republican candidate that can beat her in 2008," said a recent Giuliani camp strategy memorandum.
While Giuliani's past moderate stands on issues like gun control and abortion have hurt him with social conservatives, his campaign contends his record could force Clinton to defend traditional Democratic strongholds.
"The mayor puts ... states like Connecticut, New Jersey, Wisconsin, California, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington in play," the memo said.
Costas Panagopoulos, of the Elections and Campaign Management programme at Fordham University, said Giuliani's team had made a "strategic decision" to engage Clinton.
"The only credible argument he has to reach out and get the support of conservatives in the party is that he is the most viable election candidate likely to defeat any of the Democrats, including Hillary Clinton.
"In terms of reaching out to conservatives it is probably the best leg he has to stand on."
Giuliani sprang into action against Clinton after she cross-examined Iraq war commander General David Petraeus in a Senate hearing last month.
In a New York Times ad, he accused her of "spewing venom", and a subsequent television spot argued she had turned her back on US troops, after demanding an end to the conflict having voted in 2002 to authorise the Iraq war.
Possible all-New York showdown
On Friday, Giuliani made another pitch for the hearts of conservatives using Clinton as a foil and further spiking anticipation of a possible all-New York showdown next year.
He mocked an idea Clinton discussed last week to give every US infant a "baby bond" as "socialised" - a notion tantamount to treason in capitalist America.
"Do you know how much money it is per year? Twenty billion," he said.
"Hillary, that's real money - you and Bill can't afford that - it's got to come out of somebody's pockets ... yours, mine, hardworking Americans."
Clinton took her own, more veiled swipe at Giuliani this weekend, in an evocative black-and-white TV ad picturing her at the site of the World Trade Centre disaster.
"She stood by Ground Zero workers who sacrificed their health," the ad's narrator says, drawing an implicit contrast with Giuliani, who was hailed as a hero after the attacks, but faced criticism over medical treatment for rescue workers.
Clinton rarely, if ever, mentions Giuliani by name during the campaign.
But in September, a key Clinton supporter, former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack, attacked Giuliani's "interesting past", which includes three marriages.
Clinton said on ABC News that Vilsack's comments were "wrong" and she was not running a campaign that "goes down that road".
Clinton in the lead
But trading shots with Giuliani does not appear to be doing much damage to her campaign, as aides try to position her as the "inevitable" nominee.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll last week gave Clinton a 51 to 43% edge over Giuliani in a hypothetical match-up, compared to a 49 to 47% lead in January.
Clinton and Giuliani had been expected to clash in 2000 for a New York Senate seat, but the Republican withdrew after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and she went on to win.
- AFP
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