Giuliani fits River-Cade parade in at last minute
1:00 AM
By Bret Hayworth Journal staff writer | Posted: Thursday, July 19, 2007
At the last minute, the Republican Party presidential candidate who considers himself the parade candidate was able to participate in Sioux City's biggest annual parade Wednesday night.
At 5 p.m., former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was sitting down with a Journal reporter for an interview prior to his town hall meeting at North Middle School. Asked if he knew the River-Cade parade that draws hundreds was running head-to-head with his campaign event, Giuliani said he was unaware of the parade.
Asked if he might try to fit it in, Giuliani turned to an aide at the table and said, "Why don't I?"
That started the process of the aide calling and text-messaging to see if the parade could be experienced before the top-polling Republican in the race left Sioux City. After all, Giuliani said, "I am the most experienced candidate for doing parades" in the presidential field, citing his participation in 30 to 40 parades annually in New York City, from the huge St. Patrick's Day event to "little teeny ones."
As he chomped on a big bowl of red grapes, Giuliani joked about shortening his town hall meeting to 10 minutes (he kept it to 50 minutes) to accommodate the parade.
At the time the interview ended, Giuliani wasn't sure if he would be in the parade. He shot baskets in the North Middle gym prior to starting the meeting, while aides furiously sought to get permission into the parade, wanting not to be disruptive, but to do it the right way.
By the time the question portion of the town hall meeting started at 6:35 p.m., Giuliani told the crowd, "I want to finish on time, so I can watch the parade." Then as the meeting neared a close at 7:07 p.m., he announced, "one more question, then we go to the parade. Is it a good parade?"
He was assured the parade would be worth seeing.
It worked out. Giuliani didn't just get to watch it, he became part of the River-Cade Parade downtown.
Before 8 p.m., Giuliani was downtown walking the parade route on Pierce Street, sans car, without any big placard, just making the rounds and shaking hands.
His spokesman Jarrod Agen said "there are a lot of surprised people."
Added Agen, "He's glad he knew about it, he's enjoying himself."
Bret Hayworth may be reached at (712) 293.4203 or brethayworth@siouxcityjournal.com
At 5 p.m., former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was sitting down with a Journal reporter for an interview prior to his town hall meeting at North Middle School. Asked if he knew the River-Cade parade that draws hundreds was running head-to-head with his campaign event, Giuliani said he was unaware of the parade.
Asked if he might try to fit it in, Giuliani turned to an aide at the table and said, "Why don't I?"
That started the process of the aide calling and text-messaging to see if the parade could be experienced before the top-polling Republican in the race left Sioux City. After all, Giuliani said, "I am the most experienced candidate for doing parades" in the presidential field, citing his participation in 30 to 40 parades annually in New York City, from the huge St. Patrick's Day event to "little teeny ones."
As he chomped on a big bowl of red grapes, Giuliani joked about shortening his town hall meeting to 10 minutes (he kept it to 50 minutes) to accommodate the parade.
At the time the interview ended, Giuliani wasn't sure if he would be in the parade. He shot baskets in the North Middle gym prior to starting the meeting, while aides furiously sought to get permission into the parade, wanting not to be disruptive, but to do it the right way.
By the time the question portion of the town hall meeting started at 6:35 p.m., Giuliani told the crowd, "I want to finish on time, so I can watch the parade." Then as the meeting neared a close at 7:07 p.m., he announced, "one more question, then we go to the parade. Is it a good parade?"
He was assured the parade would be worth seeing.
It worked out. Giuliani didn't just get to watch it, he became part of the River-Cade Parade downtown.
Before 8 p.m., Giuliani was downtown walking the parade route on Pierce Street, sans car, without any big placard, just making the rounds and shaking hands.
His spokesman Jarrod Agen said "there are a lot of surprised people."
Added Agen, "He's glad he knew about it, he's enjoying himself."
Bret Hayworth may be reached at (712) 293.4203 or brethayworth@siouxcityjournal.com
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Michelle wrote on Jul 19, 2007 2:33 PM:
Wake up wrote on Jul 19, 2007 9:38 AM:
waste of time. wrote on Jul 19, 2007 9:34 AM:
woah. wrote on Jul 19, 2007 8:42 AM: