I once caught a clip of Mr. Guiliani in a Republican debate. One of the other debaters made the (obviously insane) suggestion that 9/11 was related to America's disastrous foreign policy in the past. Mr. Guiliani's response: "That's ridiculous. Ridiculous." (No explanation was provided for his statements.)

I wouldn't be surprised if he gets elected- he's obviously just as much of an idiot as Bush, and he got elected twice!

Carolyn (an American living in the UK), London,

Poll after poll shows that the vast majority of Americans are against giving illegal immigrants amnesty, driver's licenses, special work visas, etc. This is where the Republican candidates are strong and the Democrats weak. This is the issue that recently hurt Hillary - not just her waffling and complaints about being bullied, but her final position (so far) that it's reasonable for some states to issue driver's licenses to illegal immigrants. Most of us think this is insane.

Lynne, Georgia, USA

Does this mean that Mr. Baker advises us to support a Democrat in the election if Rudy is the Republican candidate?

Lynn, Cincinnati, Ohio

This country will never elect Hillary Clinton President. That is why so many people are favoring Giuliani. He may not be the best candidate but he has the best change to beat Hillary. People criticize his personal life but we all know that if Hillary wasn't so ambitious Bill Clinton would be on HIS third wife too! Not to mention that you need some kind of CEO experience to be the CEO of the U S of A. Hillary claims she has experience because she watched her husband do it. Tell me if a Fireman was busy would you want his wife leading the team to put out your burning house? If your female surgeon was not available would you want her husband the plumber operating on you? Just because your spouse does a job does not mean YOU can do it. She would be a disaster. Rudy for President!!

KC Clarke, North Conway, NH

rudy toot toot...man can this guy blow his own horn or what!!! ive seen egos before but this one is really out there. he advocates torture for"the good of all"...come on rudy...its illegal!!! if it wasnt for 9/11 he wouldnt even be in the picture right now ...and he didnt do that good of a job anyway...just ask the fire and policemen that he commanded.

bill mcnamara, watertown, sd

Rudy, a fiscal conservative? That is a joke! In his second term as Mayor of New York, when the economy was booming, he abandoned fiscal restraint and became a big-spending liberal. City budget expenditures jumped 25 percent – twice the inflation rate – and Giuliani left his successor a projected operating deficit of $4.5 billion and New York's citizens with the highest tax burden in any major municipality in America. Rudy is just a big talker, and his main selling point has been that he could beat Hillary in the general election. But McCain can do it too, and without the baggage that Rudy has.

Sam Jones, New York, New York

Pat Robertson's endorsement of Rudy Guliani is irrelevant. I was at the Republican Club in New York City on Tuesday night for a Republican Straw Poll. You know who won? Ron Paul in a landslide. Ron Paul has 85,000 grassroot campaign supporters and his numbers are growing by 10% per week. He has over 1100 meetup.com groups nationwide. He raised the single largest amount of money is a single day, 4.2 million on Monday the 5th of November, remember...remember the 5th of November.
Ron Paul wins every Republican internet poll by a wide margin. Ron Paul gets the more donations from the U.S. Military than any other candidate. Droves of Ron Paul supporters from all over the Eastern United States have been converging on New Hampshire canvasing and knocking on doors. The truth is that Pat Robertson's endorsement is an act of desperation to derail the Ron Paul juggernaut.

Kevin Courtois, New York, USA/NY

And they said David Koresh was crazy! Anyone who says he personally speaks with God needs to be watched closely by the FBI; very closely. I can see it now...Pat and Rudy holed up in some nuthouse blurting on that the Terrorists, or the Devil or Dracula are coming for their blood. Give it a rest America and come back to Planet Earth. You'll find things a lot less stressful here. The boogie man ISN'T REAL!!!

Andrew Duncan, Godalming, UK

Let me begin by saying the only thing that could make me vote for Hillary is if Rudy were the Republican nominee.
Having said that let's move on to Robertson and his portion of the Christian Right. These people vastly prefer an authoritarian leader. Freedom for them means mostly freedom from people not like themselves. Freedom from having to think about hard issues. The Italians and the Germans tried this sort of leadership in the 1920s, '30s and'40s. The Iranians are trying it today along with the Venezuelans, Bolivians and Equadorians, among others.

Think about it. If that's the type of government people want, Rudy's the man!

God save us all!

Jim Waalton, Washington DC,

The idea that Pat Robertson has any real influence among mainstream evangelical Christians in the U.S. is a fiction. He's seen as whacky by nearly everyone. We have a media-obsessed population of over 300 million, with a 24 hour media presence. It's not hard for someone to get a few 100,000s of people to watch your show in that context. That doesn't mean he has influence - only that he's entertaining to a relatively small group of people. As a nation, we are thankfully moving out of a brief period (historically speaking) when a major political party was in bed with well-publicized leaders of individual churches. But recall, the US is not like most European countries; we don't have *a church*. There are many, many unaffiliated groups. It's very dynamic. But the news media for decades has operated under the illusion that if some figure from some church speaks, he's speaking for *the* American church - when in reality he's probably speaking for a few 1000 out of 300,000,000.

David, Charleston, SC / USA

I survived the 8 years of Mayor Giuliani in New York. As president, he'd make Vladimir Putin look good. I'll make Craig Connors an offer -- you give us Red Ken Livingstone and you can have Mr. Giuliani (and I'll throw in one slightly used Mitt Romney).

Jeff Myhre, New York City, USA

Christianity? America? this is a contradiction in terms!!!!.....

Ian Hendry, Boston, USA

As the one President that has consistently stood up against terrorism, that was incidentally, planned on previous Presidents' watches, not Bush at all, the fact that the US and her President is unpopular today says more about her critics than about the present regime.

Anyone can be popular if you do nothing, say nothing and contribute nothing. What Reagan and Thatcher and Bush have in common is that they cared more for doing the right thing than winning popularity contests.

Bush made enormous mistakes in carrying out the war, but at least he tried to stand up to the enemies of liberty and secularism, while the people that benefit from these systems responded by accusing him of war-mongering for oil, happy though to have low petrol prices to sustain their lifestyles.

If the US, led by a woman of no principals who will say anything to get in power, and her proven liar of a husband who really disgraced the Presidency, becomes popular again, then we deserve what will follow.

Stephen Rothbart, Prague, Czech Republic

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."

~BENJAMIN FRANKLIN


This, I fear, is what George W. Bush has done to America.

Tracy, USA,

Remember: we don't vote FOR someone, we vote AGAINST someone else.

sam guyton, petaluma, CA

I bet that Pat Robertson checked with a buddy in the US weather service before publicly praying to be saved from Hurricane Felix. So perhaps he is trying to associate Rudy Giuliani s chances with a similar indulgence.

Henry Percy, London, UK

I live in the States (in Virginia, just up the interstate from Virginia Beach) and I think I know a thing or two about both Rudolph Giuliani and Marion 'Pat' Robertson. First, can anyone please tell me just what Rudy did on 9/11 that was so magnificent? I seem to recall seeing him standing helplessly on the street watching people tumble a thousand feet to their deaths, sobbing and then running off, and later giving a sober speech about the losses. Good speech. So what? Did he do anything that any mayor in the same situation wouldn't have done? As for Robertson, anyone who has watched his TV show can attest to the vile depths this man will go to separate the poorest, most desperate among his viewers from their money. The surest way to become a true Christian in Pat's eyes is to be an abject failure at life. Can't pay the rent? Don't worry, a tithe to Pat is just like giving money to God.

Both of these men are frauds. If you like George II, you'll love King Rudy.

Robert Foster, Williamsburg, Virginia/USA

It is impossible to predict the outcome of the coming presidential election. Who would have gessed that Americans would vote Bush back in? The world, has seen what a mess Bush has made of things. At the end of Clinton's reign, America was financially, very strong. Now, it's all been spent on an un-winnable war. The problem is that the Americans have always been more interested in whom their president is sleeping with than what he is doing to their country. The dollar is now $2.10 to the £1. This is a disgrace and damaging many American businesses.

It is, also, incredibly sad to watch the most powerful country in the world become the laughing stock of the world. This must be as a result of Bush, as it was not so before he came to power.

Americans are the most kind, generous, warm and, sometimes, predjudiced people and I only hope that they can forget that Hilary Clinton is a woman and vote for the only person who, with hubby's help, can sort out the county's finances.

Marc, St. Barthelemy,

Soon, though, American Christians will realize that fear-mongering and aggression do not make your country more secure. Quite the opposite. Its not that much of a stretch that our Christians will come to understand this, since, after all, peace IS a teaching of Jesus.

Ivan, Cottage Grove, Oregon, USA

Rudy Giuliani is the man. What the free world needs right now is a leader with brains and Rudy seems to have both.

Craig Connors, London, England

I would be most surprised if America votes for Guiliani. Outside America he is a joke-figure who takes mobile calls from his wife while addressing the American nation. That at least would be an advance on George W Bush talking to his God. America may well settle for 2-in-1 and bring the Clintons back to the White House if Guiliani gets the Republican nomination. If he were to go on and take the White House then America would be in for another 4 years of Bush policies in the Middle East with disastrous consequence. It would also see America's position as the world's superpower move into limbo, to be replaced by a European duopoly of Russia and the EU. Guiliani performed demonstrably well after 9/11 but that would not be an advantage in dealing with the post 9/11 world in which heroic deeds need to be replaced with painstaking diplomacy to bring former terrorists into a political orbit - much as Tony Blair did in bringing the Irish terrorists to the negotiating table.

Dr David Green, Athens, Greece

There is a zero percent chance of not just Giuliani but any Republican being elected to the White House next year. Not only have the Republicans got to deal with the latest fall-out from Iraq, and lord knows what they will do with Iran, but the U.S. economy is now looking seriously shaky. Their record just in time for next Autumn's election is not going to look good at all.

Liss Canary, Hampshire, UK

Surely there is someone witha bit of brain between the ears in all of the US. I must say we haven't seen any recently.

m wilson, bidache, france

Saying you are tough is easy. Being smart about when to be and when to use other means, is apparently not. We in the U.S. are cursed with the religious right, with pseudo-conservatives who would not know real conservatism if it hit them in the face, and with a Democratic party that has the collective spine of a paramecium. If we elect Rudy President, or Hillary, we will get what we deserve. There are decent people out there, who might do a good job. With the exception of Barack Obama, whose chances of winning nomination or election are vanishingly small, they are unwilling to subject themselves to the process of waterboarding by media that we call a Presidential election campaign. The world will need to look elsewhere for enlightened leadership. That has long been absent here, because we, the people, don't appear to want it.

Roy, Los Angeles, California, USA

What is not stated either through ignorance or omission in this article is the reality that social issues do not matter if your country is not secure. That is why many Christian conservatives are seriously considering Giuliani, they believe he will be strong on this front. Aldditionally, many social conservatives are also fiscal conservatives and we are aware that after Bush and charming spend-happy Congress we desperately need fiscal conservative. This is another perceived strength of Giuliani's.

Marianne, Cincinnati, Ohio