Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Bomb threat snags Giuliani campaign stop in Florida

MELBOURNE, Florida (Reuters) - Republican Rudy Giuliani, who regularly touts his leadership of New York City during the September 11 attacks, saw his plan to jump-start his presidential campaign tripped up by a bomb threat in Florida on Wednesday.

The threat threw off his schedule and reduced the turnout for the former New York mayor's speech in Melbourne from what his campaign manager Bill McCollum said was initially expected to be "several hundred" people to about 50.

The anonymous threat was called into the headquarters of communications equipment maker Harris Corp at about the same time Giuliani's plane landed at the airport for his scheduled appearance at the company, according to Melbourne Police Commander Ron Bell.

All 500 Harris employees were evacuated and sent home while the presidential hopeful waited at the airport for police to secure a hangar as an alternative site for the event and check reporters and supporters with bomb-sniffing dogs.


From his poor showing in Iowa and New Hampshire, to the serious reduction in Florida's republican delegates, and now this; has Giuliani's campaign hit rock bottom?


2 comments:

Kristina McOmber said...

Do you think it may have been a joke - poking fun at Giuliani's "9/11 platform" ? just a thought

Ziva said...

Ooo - yes the point Kristina points out is oh so ironic. I listened to a radio show called "Wait, Wait...Don't Tell Me" a few weeks ago and they poked fun at how Giuliani always manages to force a little bit of 9/11 into his speeches and mocked the numbers - saying that a dinner ticket to one of his fundraisers cost $911, etc. It was really funny, but anyways back to the blog...I think, personally, that Giuliani is losing momentum. I watched last Saturday's debates in NH and I was unimpressed with his performance. Almost all his comments somehow related to 9/11. I think that his trying to stretch out 9/11 and feed off peoples' fears about terrorism, which is getting really tiring. I have heard from different people being interviewed on NPR that he has nothing to show for himself, except 9/11, and it is a tough race, being only a mayor who is up against Senators and former Governors. However, if people really loved Giuliani like people love Obama and Clinton, his supporters would have been at his rally rain or shin – or in this case, bomb or no bomb. In this way, I think his support is dwindling.