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Durham, NH — Rudy Giuliani said he does not believe it was a mistake for New York City taxpayers to pick up the security tab associated with visits related to his then extra-marital affair with Judith Nathan.

Following a town hall at the University of New Hampshire today, he took questions from the media where the issue hounding him all week inevitably came up.

“I think everything was done quite appropriately. All this has been answered. I think all this was answered 4 or 5 years ago. I looked at the newspaper accounts back 4 or 5 years ago. So this is a way of rehashing something that’s already been asked and answered,” Giuliani said.

Giuliani has called the reports this week that showed “obscure” city offices were billed for some of the security costs instead of the NYPD a “hit job.” He argues that since he received 24/7 protection as mayor, it is completely normal that all security costs were picked up by the city (the NYPD reportedly reimbursed city offices for their tab)–even his personal trips.

After receiving the endorsement of the New Hampshire State Troopers Association, Rudy Giuliani took a spin in the Fox News’ Election Link vehicle.  Brian Wilson interviewed the Hizzoner for Weekend Live using the on-board Electionlink cameras.   He is the first presidential candidate to be interviewed live from our new ElectionLink vehicle!

 Photo by Gregg Gursky, Fox News Photog

The CNN-Youtube debate in St. Petersburg, Fl was over. It was early Friday morning and Team Cameron arrived on an early morning flight in New Hampshire. The day looked to be a quiet one. We were to unveil our “electionlink” live van.

Settling into lunch, we received a phone call to say up to five hostages were being held at the Rochester, NH Hillary Clinton Campaign headquarters. Grabbing lunch to go, Carl Cameron jumped into the new, untested election link van and headed the 45 minutes to Rochester, NH.

While Scott Wilder drove, Carl reported the latest on the quick moving story live while speeding down the highway.

Early on, all we knew was that a man saying he had a bomb strapped to himself had locked himself in the HRC HQ’s with up to five hostages.

Carl arrived and immediately continued reporting the latest 100 yards from HRC’s headquarters.

More than 20 police cars and swat teams arrived as the situation unfolded.

An impromptu command center was set up where the local police chief gave updates throughout the day.

By 7.40 pm the hostage taker was taken into custody and the local officials gave their last briefing.

Shortly thereafter, Clinton’s staff announced she would be in Portsmouth by 10:15pm to thank the families and law enforcement officials.

Fox New’s Channels “electionlink” van was put to the test and passed with flying colors as Carl was able to report a breaking news story while racing to the scene. Look for more of the Electionlink vehicle in the next couple of months as he moves from Iowa to New Hampshire, South Carolina to Florida in the lead off to the earliest nominating contest in history!

With about five weeks to go before the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary, the latest Fox News poll in the state shows the race on both sides tightening. On the Republican side, Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney continues to hold a lead but Rudy Giuliani and John McCain remain within striking distance, according to the poll of likely Republican primary voters.

Mitt Romney 29%
John McCain 21%
Rudy Giuliani 19%
Mike Huckabee 7%

For more on GOP…

Among likely Democratic primary voters, Sen. Hillary Clinton is seeing a softening in her lead with Sen. Barack Obama closing in on the party front-runner.

Hillary Clinton 30%
Barack Obama 23%
John Edwards 17%
Bill Richardson 12%

For more on Dems…

The telephone poll was conducted for FOX News by Opinion Dynamics Corp. among 1,000 likely presidential primary voters in New Hampshire, including 500 likely Democratic primary voters and 500 likely Republican primary voters, from Nov. 27 to Nov. 29. The entire poll has a 3-point error margin overall and a 4 point error for the subgroups of Democratic and GOP presidential primary voters.

Full Results (PDF)

Eyewitness reports say a man walked into Hillary’s campaign headquarters in Rochester with what appeared to be a bomb strapped to his chest, and demanded to speak with Hillary Clinton. He’s now holding at least two hostages in the building.

Clinton was not there; she’s in the Washington, DC area, and was set to speak to a meeting of the Democratic National Committee. She’s since canceled that speech because of the news.

Rochester police have been in contact with the hostage taker, who has released a mother and child.

Both Barack Obama’s Rochester office two doors down, and John Edwards office have been evacuated as well. A campaign staffer in Virginia said they were still working on getting all the details, but as far as he knew no one had been hurt.

We will keep this spot updated with the latest breaking news.

UPDATE: Manchester, NH TV station WMUR reports that around 1pm, a man in his 40’s with salt and pepper hair entered the headquarters. Two volunteers and a woman with an infant were inside; he told the two volunteers to get on the floor and released the woman and her child. She went next door and instructed shop owners there to call 911.

UPDATE 2: Police say the two hostages have been released, and the situation is fluid but stabilized. No one has been hurt.

Check out some of Carl Cameron’s reporting from the scene.

Rudy Giuliani’s latest TV ad is a twofer for the Republican front-runner—touting his New York City mayoral successes as well as taking a shot at Democrats.

Set to air in the Boston and New Hampshire television markets–his fourth ad targeting the Granite State in as many weeks–argues that Democrats will “raise taxes even more than they promise.”

While his first three ads have solely focused on his biography and how he tamed New York City, he goes on the offense in the latest spot—borrowing a few lines from his campaign stump speech.

He says, “I know that reducing taxes produces more revenues. Democrats don’t know that. They don’t believe it. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, here’s a promise I assure you they’ll keep. They are making the promise to raise taxes. The only thing I can tell you in addition to that is they’ll raise taxes even more than they promise.”

The fear of increased taxes and perceived Democratic fiscal irresponsibility play an important part in Giuliani’s campaign rhetoric. But a quick fact check: While the three leading Democratic contenders have all said they would let parts of the Bush tax cuts expire for Americans in the richest tax bracket (a defacto increase for some Americans), Giuliani is definitely stretching it a bit here by arguing that they will increase taxes above promised rates. The truth is, is who knows? They could also increase taxes less than they promise.

Barack Obama held a foreign policy forum in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Tuesday to showcase Obama-friendly foreign policy experts, several of whom worked in the Clinton Administration. They were summoned by the campaign to discuss why they believe the junior senator from Illinois has the experience needed to be the leader of the free world.

Samantha Power, described by the campaign as a “Pulitzer Prize-winning author and renowned professor of human rights and foreign policy,” described Obama’s foreign policy approach as “fresh, unifying, and unbeholden.” Richard Danzig, former Secretary of the Navy under Bill Clinton, said Obama would be able to get away from “that inner-circle mentality” while Gen. Jim Smith (USAF Ret.) pointed out that Obama has “a world view; not just a Washington, DC view.”

Tony Lake, National Security Advisor to President Clinton, noted that Obama would present a “wonderful, new face to the world.” Lake said he didn’t understand why the candidate has been attacked for his lack of experience. “His experience it seems to me is greater, even the classic kind of experience, is greater than Bill Clinton’s when he ran for president, than the current president’s, than Ronald Reagan, than Jimmy Carter – I could go on an on,” Lake stated.

The forum came just a week after Obama was asked about his foreign policy credentials at a Clarion, Iowa, town hall meeting.

(more…)

Hudson, NH — Confronted by a New Hampshire voter about his plans for Iraq, Rudy Giuliani said Sunday that his strategy is simple, “victory.”

At a diner stop during the second day of his bus tour through the first primary state, Roger Latulippe, 67, queried Giuliani about his position–asking for more nuance from the Republican candidate.

“What is your plan to get our troops out of Iraq,” asked Latulippe, a self-described Democrat and supporter of an immediate troop withdrawal.

“Our plan is success–have success in Iraq. Victory,” Giuliani responded with his normal mantra on the stump, adding that the U.S. should stay in in Iraq for however long it takes “to win.”

Disgruntled with the answer, Latulippe continued to prod Giuliani for nearly two minutes. “Our young men and women are dying over there right now…..we would like victory too, but I want it sooner then later.”

The former New York City mayor was unmoved, saying that as far back as the Civil War, Americans became impatient with war after witnessing initial battle losses. “I don’t agree with that. I think it’s time for us to focus on winning in Iraq, giving our young men and women a chance to have victory on Iraq and success…and that’s a stable Iraq, in which they act as an ally for us in the war against terror. It would be a shame to pull them out and give (our troops) a loss,” he said.

Giuliani, who often says that the U.S. focuses too much time on Iraq rather than the overall war on terror, has also been critiqued by candidates from both parties for lacking substance and nuance when it comes to Iraq and his overall foreign policy. Republican Arizona Senator John McCain attacked Giuliani for lacking national security experience today during an appearance on Fox News Channel.

“I don’t know what experience he has…he has no national security experience that I know of. He has never been to Iraq. He was a member of the Iraq Study Group and was either fired or quit–from a very important commission that was trying to figure out the way forward in Iraq,” McCain said. (See Video)

(((Video shows questions posed by Richard Florino on Saturday and then Sunday.)))

Windham, NH– During his two-day bus tour through New Hampshire this weekend, a familiar face kept popping up at Rudy Giuliani campaign events throwing friendly questions in the candidate’s direction.

Richard Florino, 52, a Giuliani volunteer and his Windham County, New Hampshire co-chairman was called upon by the former New York City mayor to ask the first question at two forums on back to back days–first at a Nashua town hall Saturday afternoon and then at a Windham house party Sunday morning.

Ever since we learned that the Hillary Clinton campaign had attempted to plant questions at at least two events earlier this year, the media antennas have been perked up during candidate question periods for seemingly easier-than-usual queries. While both the Giuliani camp and Florino deny that his questions were planted, internal alarm bells still went off today when Florino asked his second friendly question in as many days.

At Saturday’s Nashua town hall forum Florino, seated directly behind the stage, asked Giuliani to summarize why Democrats are weak on defense, in a question that echoed the candidate’s traditional national security talking points.

“What makes the liberal Democrats so wrong about the threats that this country faces?” he asked, adding, “the liberal Democrats and their accomplises in the liberal editorial pages of the New York Times..overlook the threats (putting the) United States in a position of being the wrong party rather than the right party in these conflicts.”

Giuliani responded initially by complimenting Florino’s question. “Very, very interesting analysis. And you are absolutely right,” he said, before launching into his answer.
At a house party held Sunday about 10 miles from Nashua, at the home of Giuliani’s other Windham co-chairman, Florino was again the first person called upon to ask a question. Florino had domestic issues on his mind as he posed a two-part question asking for Giuliani’s reaction to Democrats’ tax plans and Romney’s changing views of former President Ronald Reagan.

After the event, Florino told inquiring reporters that he had no interaction with Giuliani campaign staff prior to either event and had not been approached to ask any questions.  “I raised my hand,” he said. “If I’m there, I get called on.” Florino also attended a Salem town holiday parade Giuliani marched in on Sunday but did not speak with the candidate.

Giuliani spokeswoman Maria Comella said the campaign does not plant questions and has no control over whether  volunteers raise their hands or get called on. “These are open forums and there is no way to control them….the mayor randomly calls on people,” she said, adding “we get asked aggressive questions all the time as well.”

New Hampshire voters are famously demanding and it is not uncommon for those volunteering for campaigns to show up at multiple events and expect to interact with the candidate. For his part, Florino has been a busy man this year, attending events in October, August, and as far back as  last November where he asked the former mayor when he was going to announce his run for the White House. Happy Googling everyone.

Barack Obama often jokes that his family resembles the United Nations. The son of a white mother from Kansas and a Kenyan father whose half-Indonesian sister is married to a Chinese-Canadian told a Berlin, New Hampshire, audience Sunday that he considers himself a proud African American.

“I’ve got family members that look like Margaret Thatcher and family members that look like Bernie Mac,” Obama joked to a multiracial crowd at North High School in Des Moines earlier in the day. The crowd laughed and applauded.

The candidate often cites his diverse family as an asset. It’s because he has a grandmother who still lives in an African village, for example, that Obama can relate to the world, he says on the campaign trail. “Even though I may be African American,” the candidate noted earlier this month in Chariton, Iowa, “I come from a family that has folks of every stripe in it, and so I think I am able to bridge divisions between people.”

But race is something that Obama, who would be the first African American president, must deal with very delicately on the trail. He must appeal to Red State and rural voters who may be hesitant to elect a black president while ensuring African American voters he is “black enough” and electable.

“I wouldn’t be running if I didn’t think I could win,” Obama told a largely African American crowd in Manning, SC, last month. “So the brothers and sisters out there telling folks I can’t win – don’t defeat ourselves. Get that out of your mind that you can’t do something. I don’t believe in you can’t do something. Yes we can do something,” he implored.

That same day he told a Greenville, SC, NAACP group, “You can trust I will fight for you as president because I don’t just talk the talk; I walk the walk. I’ve been there. I’ve been along side you. I have the bruises and the battle scars to show.”

Obama is also sure not to exploit race as an issue. He doesn’t often volunteer his views on race relations in his day-to-day campaigning, probably because he does not want to “play the race card,” as the press is prone to describe such talk.

When he does talk about race in America, it’s a subject of note that only a candidate with Barack Obama’s background can talk about with authority, as he did at his town hall forum focusing on urban issues in Des Moines Saturday.

Obama began, “There is no doubt that the blight of racism and discrimination is less than it was 30 years ago. Anybody who says differently I think is not paying attention. I could not be standing here were it not for the extraordinary efforts that were made on behalf by a previous generation. I stand on the shoulders of people who fought for justice, who fought for equality.”

Here is a montage of the senator’s remarks: