Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani says there is no "perfect person" running for president, but Giuliani says he’s confident voters will look at his record and become convinced he’s the best candidate in the GOP field.
During a telephone interview this morning with Radio Iowa, Giuliani brushed aside remarks from the wife of former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. She bragged recently to a crowd that Romney was the only one among the top GOP candidates who had been married just once.
"You know look, I’ve made mistakes in my life. I’ve tried to learn from them, tried to grow from them," Giuliani said. "I think each one of the other candidates has probably made mistakes…I don’t know that we have a perfect person running for president of the United States, but I think in life you make mistakes and then you do the best you can to learn from them and grow."
Giuliani said voters will "eventually" focus on his record as mayor of New York. "They can take a look at how I performed in that role, not just (on) September 11th, but you know when I became mayor of a city…that was considered the crime capitol of America; that was considered a city that was in economic decline; very, very high unemployment; very high job losses," Giuliani said. "We ended up with a city that was the safest large city in America."
Giuliani boasts that by the end of his tenure as mayor, there had been a "big" decline in crime in New York City and an economic renaissance in the city. "I think when people focus on things like that, that’s how they’re going to make their choice," Giuliani said. "When they start comparing people’s personal lives and the mistakes they’ve made, you know, we’re all going to come out as human beings."
Some social conservatives in the Republican Party have expressed concerns about Giuliani as the party’s presidential nominee because he has backed abortion rights. Giuliani’s response is to promise that, as president, he would appoint conservative judges to the courts. He also describes himself as a "fiscal conservative" when he ran New York City.
"I don’t like abortion. I oppose it. I think it’s wrong. I hate it. I wish that people would make the choice for adoption rather than abortion if that’s the choice…but ultimately, I do respect a woman’s right to choose and I believe you can’t put a woman in jail for it," Giuliani said. "…I ask people to look at the entire record and understand that this comes from something that I’ve thought about very, very heavily."
You can hear all of Giuliani’s interview with Radio Iowa by clicking on the audio link below.