PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Heavy on the calories, light on the substance and garnished with a touch of rhetoric — that’s how Rudy Giuliani prefers to campaign when he’s on the road.
Mostly shunning the policy-laden town-hall settings favored by many of his rivals, the former New York mayor and Republican presidential candidate has opted instead to drop by popular eateries. He shakes hands, compliments the chef, maybe makes a few remarks and then gets down to business, sampling the local fare with true gusto.
From a lobster shack on the coast of New Hampshire to a south Philadelphia cheesesteak stand to a barbecue joint in Oklahoma City, no culinary landmark is too obscure for the Giuliani campaign schedule. But the all-American diner is Giuliani’s preferred campaign venue.
He wolfed down a cheeseburger with lettuce and tomato at the Ocean Bay Diner on the Jersey Shore after decrying Islamic terrorists. He tasted cheesesteak, sausage and meatball sandwiches at a diner in Tulsa, Okla., then boasted of reducing crime in New York. At Peter’s Grill in Minneapolis, he spoke darkly of “a Democratic plan to get us as close to socialized medicine as they can,” but he passed up the menu’s “President Clinton Special” — Canadian bacon with egg sandwich on pumpernickel with vegetable soup, apple pie and a Diet Coke, commemorating a 1995 visit by then-President Bill Clinton.
“I like to eat. I love diners. I got a great New York bagel here,” Giuliani told reporters on a recent Sunday morning at a Portsmouth diner, even though every New Yorker knows real bagels do not exist outside the city’s five boroughs.
The diner tour lets Giuliani play to his popularity and celebrity. Wandering through crowded diners and moving quickly from one table to the next, Giuliani scribbles autographs onto campaign literature and baseballs. He pauses for a moment — seldom introducing himself — and then scurries to the next table.
It also lets him avoid tough questions in favor of bagels. And salsa. And omelets. And fried clams.
Giuliani’s diner drop-bys are designed largely to get his much-recognized face on local television, especially in early-voting states such as Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
