‘Meet the Press’ transcript for July 1, 2007

MR. RUSSERT:  ...on them a few months ago.  The New York Times has now come out with a poll which confirms what your report did.  Here it is.  The opinion of political parties amongst voters 17 to 19--look at those numbers—favorable for the Democrats, very unfavorable for the Republicans, which, as you build these blocs with blacks, Hispanics, young voters...

MS. WOODRUFF:  Right.

MR. RUSSERT:  ...is quite interesting.  Also we asked—The New York Times asked about these young voters who were enthusiastic about presidential candidates, who are they enthusiastic about.  Look at this, it’s Obama, 18; Clinton, 17; and then kind of everybody else.  What is going on with young voters?

MS. WOODRUFF:  Well, Tim, this is a dream come true for the Democratic Party if they can figure out how to get these young voters to the polls.  You’re right, this confirms the work that the Pew Research Center did for this program, we did for PBS this year.  And essentially, what you need to know about these young voters is they are more tolerant than the population as a whole.  One in every—this is interesting--17 percent of the voters we looked at 18 to 25, 17 percent are Hispanic, 14 percent African- American, 4 percent Asian, one in every five of them have a parent born outside the United States. One in every eight of them was himself or herself born outside the United States.  So they are a different America.  They are a, they are a group more pro-immigration, more pro-gay rights, even gay marriage.  Now, they may—but what you need to know, too, is that they don’t like to be labeled.  They may say, “I agree with”—you know, “I disagree with George Bush on the war, but I agree with him on abortion.” And in fact they are no different than the older generation on abortion.  They don’t like being pigeonholed.

MR. RUSSERT:  And, actually, they’re more optimistic about the outcome of the war in Iraq than a lot of people in, in older generations.

MS. WOODRUFF:  Which is fascinating.  And just—and quickly, Tim, getting back to the point we were just making about the, the barriers that women and, and African-Americans have, 30--when you ask them, “Your generation, what do you think about—who would not support a woman running for president?” Thirty-eight percent of them said, “I—my—I think my generation would not support a woman.” Thirty-eight percent!  Thirty percent, they said, wouldn’t support a black.  So there’s some still some interesting things going on there.

MR. RUSSERT:  Let me turn to the Republicans because they have a way of winning presidential races, as we well know, in, in the last half of the century.

MR. SMILEY:  That’s an understatement.

MR. RUSSERT:  Here’s Florida.  Chuck Todd, you’ve talked about the swing state of Florida.

MR. TODD:  Right.

MR. RUSSERT:  And here’s the latest numbers in Florida.  Right now, we have Rudy Giuliani at 27; Fred Thompson, who hasn’t yet announced, 21; John McCain at 13; that’s—down 11 points from April for Giuliani; up 16 for Thompson; 2 for McCain.

David Brody, you interviewed Rudy Giuliani.  You played this tape from—or or talked about this tape from 1993, an interview from MEET THE PRESS, where I asked him about some of his social, cultural positions.  Let’s watch that first.

(Videotape, November 28, 1993)

MR. RUSSERT:  Mayor-Elect Giuliani, will you press your party to change its platform to allow abortion rights and gay rights?

MR. RUDY GIULIANI:  Sure.  I have already.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  Giuliani looks so much younger, doesn’t he?

MS. WOODRUFF:  Who is that handsome guy?

MR. RUSSERT:  In, in response to changing platforms about abortion rights, gay rights, “Sure, I am already.” This is what he told you about 2008.  Let’s watch.

(Videotape, Tuesday)

MR. GIULIANI:  Right now, my view is the platform is the platform.  A majority of the party gets to decide on that.  I’m not going to interfere on that.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  Much different answer.

MR. BRODY:  Yeah, don’t cause waves.  I mean, this has been the Giuliani, Giuliani mantra for forever, really, since this campaign started, which is talk about judges when it comes to social conservatives.  Because for social conservatives, everybody talks about abortion and gay marriage, but the reality is, for social conservatives, it is about judges, judges, judges.  And as long as he continues to talk about that on the campaign trail, he’s got a shot.

MR. RUSSERT:  And this is what the Pew Research Center found.  “Among evangelical, Republican registered voters, Giuliani currently generates the most enthusiasm, with nearly one-in-three--32 percent—saying there’s a ‘good chance’ they’d vote for him,” “an additional 35 percent saying there is ‘some chance.’” And the mayor himself, in this conversation with you, seemed to understand that if he can keep the focus on terrorism and the economy and off those social issues, he could be nominated.  Let’s listen.

(Videotape, Tuesday)

MR. GIULIANI:  So I think, sure.  Sure.  There are people where one issue predominates.  But for most people it’s a combination of a group of issues on what do they think is the most important.  And I think, right now, social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, Republicans believe that the war on terror and our economy and the direction it goes in—does it go in the government direction that Hillary Clinton would take it, does it go in the direction of more emphasis on the private sector.  I think those issues mean that I’m going to, I’m going to be the nominee.

(End videotape)

MR. RUSSERT:  I left out one thing.  It’s terrorism and the economy and “I’m not Hillary.”

MR. BRODY:  That’s right, and he’s not Hillary.  And his record in New York. And see what happens is, with social conservatives or especially evangelicals, they look in—look at the world with biblical absolutes, you know, right and wrong.  And Giuliani does that.  I mean, he is very much a black and white type of guy.  Evangelicals, for the most part, like that, and I think that plays well on the stump.

MR. RUSSERT:  Tavis Smiley, if Rudy Giuliani could avoid having to deal with abortion, gay rights, gun control in Republican primaries, focus on terrorism, if he gets through a general election, can he compete in states like New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, that have been traditional Democratic strongholds?

MR. SMILEY:  I’m not certain.  I almost laughed when he—when David said he’s a black and white kind of guy.  I was like, whoa, there’s a number of ways to take that.  I’m not, I’m not sure.  I think that, I think that he probably has the best chance of, obviously, the Republican candidates because of his record in New York, because he has tried to do some outreach in the city.  But I’m not certain, the jury’s still out on that.

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