CBS Hounds Giuliani on Romney's Foreign Policy Speech, 'Tack to the Center'
Charlie Rose badgered former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday's CBS This Morning over the "few specifics" of Mitt Romney's foreign policy speech on Monday. During the interview, Norah O'Donnell boosted former Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's "full of platitude and free of substance" blast at Romney's speech.
Rose changed subjects midway through the segment and also hounded the former U.S. attorney on whether the Romney campaign has "decided to be more moderate" in the last days of the presidential race.
The PBS veteran immediately used his talking point on the former Massachusetts governor's foreign policy speech at the beginning of the interview: "When you look at this foreign policy speech, there were lots of criticism of President Obama, but few specifics...about whether he would do something really different, in terms of putting arms in Syria or troops on the ground; and...did not say we will go to war with Israel if they decide to go to war against Iran."
Giuliani answered by pointing out that "that's what you expect in a presidential campaign. What you expect are the general themes. It would be a different approach. It would be an approach by leading from the front, rather than from behind." He continued by spotlighting the 2009 Green Revolution uprising in Iran and how Obama "just let them down completely, didn't support them. That could have been the beginning of...a Persian spring in Iran, which we turned our back on. It was disgraceful that we did that."
The CBS anchor pressed his guest on this point: "What would he have done? He'd given verbal support to that? What would a President Romney have done with respect to that?" Giuliani replied by citing "what President Reagan did in Poland; what President Reagan did in the Czech Republic."
O'Donnell later chimed in with her Albright quote, without mentioning the diplomat's Clinton administration service: "You saw former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright yesterday call Romney's speech 'full of platitude and free of substance'." The former mayor retorted by pointing out the CBS journalist's omission: "Well, you know, I'm sure the former Democratic secretary of state would say that. I mean, the reality is, it set out a very, very strong approach for America being a leader."
Giuliani continued by claiming that if the Republican nominee "went too far in the other direction, they would say, well, Governor Romney was undercutting the commander-in-chief." Rose, who previously boosted the supposedly "enormously successful" ObamaCare in a softball July 2012 interview of the President, cut in and claimed "it is said that he didn't want to come across – to be compared with President Bush – former President Bush."
The CBS anchor concluded the interview by pursuing Giuliani on the Romney campaign's supposed move to the center:
ROSE: ...Is there something going on in the Romney campaign - other than this debate - in which they decided to tack to the center? They've decided to be more moderate?
GIULIANI: Well, I think the debate was enormously important for Governor Romney, because it was – I mean, it sounds strange to say this, because he's been around for such a long time. It was his introduction to the American people as a presidential candidate. Up until then, he was a candidate within the Republican Party. But the rest of the country really didn't pay much attention to him. Now, he got a chance, and it was a very impressive performance-
ROSE: But is he moving to the center?
GIULIANI: I don't think he's moving to the center. I think he's always been pretty much where he is. It's a question of what you emphasize.
ROSE: So, he's always been a man of the center; he's always been a moderate; and the campaign that he ran in the primary, if it gave an appearance otherwise, was not-
GIULIANI: To me, Governor Romney has always been a very sensible businessman, who is going to make sensible decisions. I think ideology is important to him, but I don't think ideology overwhelms him. Some people come into politics out of an ideological background - maybe the academic environment or as a writer - or some people come out of a practical background. He comes out of a practical business background. The reason I like him as president is, this is what we need right now. We need a practical man. I think President Obama is overwhelmed by too much ideology too often - can't see his way through it. I think he has an unrealistic view of the Islamic extremist movement. I think it's – he's, sort of, almost like a little bit of a fantasy world about it.
