On Friday, Giuliani spoke at CPAC and gave a semi-campaign speech. He mentioned that Congress is elected to make decisions, not to commentate. We have commentators in the media, we don’t need more. He stated that the next president needs to get Congress back to making decisions. He did not follow that by saying that he was the person to do that. Like I said a semi-campaign speech. His ideas and plans but without the ego.

He then went on to talk about how we are identified as Americans by our ideas. And that the American set of ideas and goals may at times be different from the current public opinion. He used Reagan as an example. Then he started to go into his record in New York. “I not only believe in lowering taxes, I did it.” He said that when he made his first minor tax cut, he was told that he just set a record. They had never cut taxes in New York.

He then went on a talked about welfare and what they had done in New York. This is a subject that can really make or break a candidate for me. He stated that they made welfare recipients work a certain number of hours a week in return for their welfare check. In New York they moved from paying people welfare to finding them a job. The welfare system is now more of a job finding system and its successful. I don’t understand how places can have a welfare system where someone can get support, continue having kids, and reach the age of 28 without ever holding a job. Not even a babysitting job. Thats ridiculous. Giuliani also mentioned that New York allowed parents to decide what school their child went to. And this had caused the public schools to make improvements so that the public schools became the schools that parents wanted to their children to go to, rather than the ones parents ran away from.

Another topic that is important to me is the War on Terror. Giuliani stated that “it is not our war on them, but their war on us.” We must remain on the offensive, and the war will be over when they stop planning to kill us. Giuliani explained that prior to 9/11 the U.S. acted as terrorism was a criminal offense. When there was a terror attack on the World Trade Center we acted like they had committed a crime rather than acting like they were at war with us. He is confident that the general thrust is what is important about the war. Not which tactic is failing. For this to succeed we need to have the patriot act and electronic surveillance, as well as other tactics. Giuliani used the example of when they went after the Gambino crime family. They had to use electronic surveillance and spies to get information on what they were doing and who was involved. It is necessary.

All in all I think that his speech was very good. I was waiting for someone to stand out in my mind. I like the fact that he has proven to have lowered taxes in a time of a deficit and in an area that had never done that. He is for a welfare system that actually helps people turn their lives around. He is in support of finishing out what was started with the terrorists. And he is not afraid to make decisions that will go against public opinion. So far the candidate for me.