Rudy Giuliani delayed dinner at the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference tonight with a lengthy speech, but it was well worth the wait for the 1,100 people who packed the dining room at the Grand Hotel.
This was the first time I watched a Giuliani speech in person. (I missed his speech at CPAC because I was moderating a panel discussion at the same time.) I was impressed. He stuck to the themes that work in his favor — lower taxes, less spending, tough on terrorists and hard on Hillary. If you’re not sold on Giuliani, you very well may be after seeing him live. He was sharp, funny and lit up the room with electricity.
My favorite part came as he was wrapping up. After facing a week’s worth of attacks from MoveOn, the far-left group that smeared Gen. David Petraeus on Sept. 11 in the New York Times, Giuliani ripped into the organization. He criticized the 24 Democrats who voted against Sen. John Cornyn’s measure condemning MoveOn this week, singling out Sen. Hillary Clinton. (Giuliani mentioned her name at least 10 times, according to Shira Toeplitz of the Hotline.) And then he said this:
If you can’t stand up to MoveOn.org, how are you going to stand up to Ahmadinejad.
The audience went wild. Giuliani’s long trek to Mackinac Island was well worth it.
Granted, he was the first of nine Republican presidential candidates to speak at the Mackinac Island event this weekend, but he’ll be a hard act to follow. I felt sorry for Rep. Duncan Hunter, who was the other candidate sharing the spotlight tonight. Fortunately for Hunter, he made an articulate case for serving as our next Defense secretary or Homeland Security secretary.
There’s more to come on Mackinac Island tomorrow. Sen. Sam Brownback and Reps. Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo speak at breakfast, then Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney entertain us for lunch. Fred Thompson and Sen. John McCain wrap things up at dinner tomorrow night.
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