Giuliani Gets A Big Boost From Bush

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The New York Sun

President Bush is lending Rudolph Giuliani some big-money muscle for his potential presidential bid.

When Mr. Giuliani traveled through Iowa on a scouting trip Monday, reporters didn’t recognize the woman at his side, Anne Dickerson, who was on her first road trip since discreetly becoming Mr. Giuliani’s lead fund-raiser a few weeks ago.

(The hiring of Ms. Dickerson was first reported on The New York Sun Web site yesterday.)

Ms. Dickerson rose to prominence during the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign, when she wrangled Texas-size cash from donors. Sources said the White House signed off on her role as Mr. Giuliani’s presidential cashier.

Mr. Giuliani and Ms. Dickerson will be raising money on the road again next week in battleground Michigan and must-win Ohio. Their goal is to raise $200,000 by June 13, when Mr. Giuliani holds a cocktail fund-raiser at the Four Seasons Restaurant in Manhattan. It’s the first time America’s Mayor has passed the hat since he earned the unofficial title.

In an exclusive interview, Ms. Dickerson told me she’s committed to Mr. Giuliani only through this fall’s midterm elections – and that it’s too early to say if he can actually win the presidential race.

“I think we should wait until he makes a decision before we get ahead of him,” she said yesterday. Mr. Giuliani has said he won’t decide until next year whether running makes sense.

After a few intense days with Mr. Giuliani’s team in Times Square this week, Ms. Dickerson has the message down cold (or at least some detailed talking points at-the-ready): “It’s not just about compassion and strength and what he did on 9/11, it’s what he did as mayor.” She went on to talk about the city’s “phenomenal” reduction in crime and how Mr. Giuliani’s New York story “is a model for others.”

Ms. Dickerson technically works for Mr. Giuliani’s political action committee, Solutions America, which will fund various Republicans who need financial help this fall. But at the core, Solutions America is about building a war chest to facilitate Mr. Giuliani’s presidential aspirations.

Mr. Giuliani’s considerable popularity is worthless when the time comes to pay staff, book flights, and air TV ads. He needs to prove his fund-raising prowess matches his enviable reputation before mounting a nationwide campaign.

Actually, raising money could be the easy part – after all, Mr. Giuliani commands $100,000 for a stump speech. The former New York mayor needs to find out whether Americans are ready for America’s Mayor.

That means redefining the scope of political debate. Mr. Giuliani needs to make voters think about personal safety and prosperity rather than social policy and values. He simply can’t win if the Republican primary is about lifestyle – he’s pro-life, pro-choice, pro-gay rights, anti-gun control, and married for the third time. New Yorkers don’t play well in the rest of the country, and Mr. Giuliani is the embodiment of the heartland’s worries about our urban values.

As mayor, Mr. Giuliani encouraged New Yorkers to consider the Founding Fathers’ belief in “enlightened self-interest” when picking his successor. He needs voters to focus on who will make their own lives better. Responsibility for shaping that message is now in the highly capable hands of John Avlon, an expert on centrism in American politics. Mr. Avlon was a New York Sun columnist until today and was previously Mr. Giuliani’s chief speechwriter in City Hall.

Ms. Dickerson’s presence on the Giuliani team should help bring in cash from what Mr. Bush calls “the base.” This is the first presidential election since 1952 that won’t include a sitting president or vice president, and Mr. Giuliani will find himself on a crowded campaign trail where there simply isn’t enough money to make all the wannabes real contenders. Scoring the sitting president’s fund-raiser helps make sure running for president is a real option.

Mr. Goldin’s column appears regularly.


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