It was June 26, and Rudy Giuliani was surprised. This was his first visit to Regent University in Virginia Beach, Virginia, the headquarters of televangelist and onetime GOP presidential candidate Pat Robertson’s media and education efforts. The Regent campus was much larger than Giuliani had expected.

The former New York City mayor was at Regent to participate in the school’s executive leadership speaking series. For the pro-choice Giuliani, the speech at Regent demonstrated his willingness to campaign anywhere, including before religious conservatives, for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. Robertson, the host of the 700 Club, introduced Giuliani to the paying audience of more than 600 people. The two embraced. “I’m not going to give a political speech,” Giuliani said. The crowd laughed. Instead Giuliani delivered his speech on leadership writes Matthew Continetti for the Weekly Standard.

Giuliani likes lists. In addition to his “12 Commitments to the American People,” a set of policy goals he outlined a few weeks ago, the mayor has “Six Principles of Leadership”: knowing what you believe, optimism, courage, relentless preparation, teamwork, and communication. At Regent, Giuliani discussed each. Then he brought up his presidential campaign. “Don’t expect that you’ll agree with me on everything, because that would be unrealistic,” Giuliani said. “But if you agree with me on enough things, and you think I have the ability to lead, then maybe I’m the person you’d support.”

He wasn’t finished. “That’s the way I’ve kind of been approaching this campaign,” Giuliani went on. “It’s not about one issue. It’s about many issues. If it is about one issue, there is one issue that dominates our present; it’s not an issue of our making. And that’s why I call it the terrorists’ war on us. The one issue that dominates is the fact that Islamic terrorists are fighting to kill us. They’ve succeeded in doing it, and they want to do it again. . . . If this is a one-issue election, it’s about remaining on offense against terrorists.” Giuliani received a standing ovation.

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