By Jacqueline Klingebiel

Jan 29, 2008 2:37pm

Giuliani Cites Hillary Success As Inspiration For Florida Victory

ABC News’ Jan Simmonds reports:  At one of his final campaign stops in Florida on Tuesday, Rudy Giuliani surprisingly looked towards Hillary Clinton as inspiration, pointing out her come from behind victory in New Hampshire as evidence that he could do it too.

"Hillary Clinton was suppose to lose by 7 or 8 points, she won," said Giuliani. "So if you go out and vote, it can make a very big difference in this.  There is plenty of time to vote."

Asked about the future of his campaign, Giuliani was hesitant to look beyond today. 

"We’re focused on winning here, today.  That’s our focus," he said.  "We’re very comfortable with the early vote, we think we did very well."

"And we are not going to entertain any hypotheticals," he added. "That would make no sense in trying to get out a vote.  We want to make sure that we say to people in Florida, ‘Do not listen to the polls, look what happened in New Hampshire.’"

Finally, at the press avail outside a sandwich shop in Del Ray Beach, Florida, reporters took another shot at having Giuliani predict his future.

"We’re headed for California tomorrow, absolutely," he responded when asked if he would be in California tomorrow for the Republican Debate scheduled there.

User Comments

He’s Toast.

Posted by: An independant Thinker | January 29, 2008, 3:12 pm 3:12 pm

He is not even toast.
He is a soggy english muffin.

Posted by: Easy | January 29, 2008, 3:38 pm 3:38 pm

Rudy never said the word “inspiration,” and it is unethical to use it in the header for this article.

Posted by: Dream | January 29, 2008, 3:53 pm 3:53 pm

Desparation sets in…

Posted by: retro | January 29, 2008, 4:12 pm 4:12 pm

Rudy’s campaign ends at midnight…

Posted by: wake up! | January 29, 2008, 5:35 pm 5:35 pm

I feel so bad for Rudy. I’m sure there are going to be many, many analyses of how a one-time front runner fell. Rudy was my one-time favorite…

Posted by: Ann B. | January 29, 2008, 6:12 pm 6:12 pm

Guiliani never was in the race.

Posted by: Dan | January 29, 2008, 9:50 pm 9:50 pm

Leave a Reply

Do you have more information about this topic? If so, please click here to contact the editors of ABC News.