KWN: I thought we could start off by talking about your reactions to the results of the Iowa Caucuses.

Michael DuHaime: Well, we would like to extend our congratulations to Gov. Huckabee. It was a very good win for him. He withstood an awful lot of negative campaigning. This was a very solid win for him. So first of all, we certainly congratulate him and his team

Secondly, we have always taken a long-term approach to this process. We take an approach that looks at the number of delegates at stake. We have never had a nominating process with so many states, large and small, involved in the nominating process. Our strategy has always been that we are going to get the most delegates, understanding that you can’t play in every single state and that the cost would be too great. Absent the ability to self-fund, the cost is too great for any of the candidates. You keep every race in perspective. We haven’t built our campaign around winning any one single state. So we looked at Iowa, knowing that there are not delegates at stake in Iowa at this point. we decided to look further down the road to look where we can pick up delegates. So many of the states that moved up, whether it be Florida or some of the February 5th states that have large delegate quantities like California, like Illinois, and obviously New York and New Jersey, that are winner-take-all states. Or other states Other like Georgia, Missouri, we have had a long-term approach to that.

We are trying to keep the results of any individual race in perspective. I know that the media is going to pay huge amount of attention on the early states, as they deserve to be. But we have looked at this from a long-term approach and we will continue to do that as we go forward. There have already been more absentee ballots requested by Republicans in Florida than there were voters in the Iowa caucuses. So I think we need to keep in perspective, that-how many voters there were. I mean there 114,000 voters less than what you would get in a normal Congressional election. I think Karl Rove had some interesting comments yesterday about the size of the electorate. Eight out of ten Republicans, or more than that, did not vote in the Iowa Causes. So keep the results in perspective.

KWN: What are your expectations for New Hampshire on Tuesday?

Michael DuHaime: It’s going to be interesting to watch between Gov. Romney and Sen. McCain. Gov. Romney predicated his campaign on winning the first two states. Obviously he has already hit a bump in Iowa, and is locked in a tight race here.

We have always had a very good perspective on New Hampshire. Look, Gov. Romney was the Governor of a neighboring state. Eighty-five percent of the residents of New Hampshire live in the Boston television market, so they saw his four years as Governor. He has spent millions upon millions of dollars here. Similar to Iowa, he has been outspending everyone dramatically. He has a vacation home in the state. So he came into here with some real institutional advantages that we were aware of.

Obviously, Sen. McCain came in here with a tremendous amount of goodwill from 2000, he won the state by almost 20 points in 2000. So we have always had a perspective and understanding that there are two very, very strong candidates in New Hampshire. We’ve felt that there was an opportunity to do well here. But again, we look at this from a long-term approach and looking at the number of delegates at stake here and in other states and tried to keep all the efforts proportional and in perspective.

KWN: Some critics in the MSM and the Blogosphere are skeptical that Mayor Giuliani will be able to win Florida if he does not win a primary or caucus up until that point. How confident are you that he will win Florida?

Michael DuHaime: We have taken a lot of criticism for having a bit of an unconventional approach. But The Mayor has never listened to conventional wisdom. Conventional wisdom a year ago said that he would not even be a serious candidate past the spring or summer. They said that he would never be able to last in the race. Not only did he last but he lead in the race and is certainly one of the top-tier candidates here as we go forward. If he had listened to conventional wisdom, he probably wouldn’t have ran for Mayor of New York, right? Five-to-one Democrat, how could a Republican win? He probably would have never said, I can cut crime in New York. He would never had been able to reduce the welfare rolls as he did because the conventional wisdom and the pundits said he couldn’t do it. But he has never listened to that. He has always said that we have to do what we believe is right, and we are going to stick to that.

That is what we are doing with this plan as well. There are a lot of folks who say you have to do it this way. Well, Rudy has never said that. Rudy has never said that you have to live by the old rules.

We’ll see. Let’s give it some time. We will see where we all stand a month from now. We have never had so many states-there are 21 states on February 5th. We have never had a primary election like that before. It’s so accelerated. Strategies change necessarily by changing circumstances.

Not only that, you have five double-digits candidates in the race. In some states you have six double-digit candidates. Nobody has ever been in a race with that many serious candidates. Nobody has ever been in a race with this many states in such a short period of time time.

So we are comfortable with our strategy. We think its very good. I am very confident about Florida. First, Rudy has a base in Florida that is better than anyone else’s. He is very familiar with Florida going all the way back to his days in the Reagan Justice Department. We have a great operation down there. Great endorsements and a great field team. Great grassroots volunteers. We have a base of support that is very familiar with The Mayor from folks that have moved down to Florida in recent years that are familiar with The Mayor’s record.

That doesn’t mean it won’t be a very tight and close race throughout-that is understood.

KWN: But hasn’t there been too little discussion of the other coalitions he has been able to build within the state? Hizzoner is extremely popular among the Florida Cuban and Puerto Rican Communities…

Michael DuHaime: Undoubtedly. The Mayor has spent a lot of time in Florida this year. He is not just another candidate that has spent a lot of time in Iowa and New Hampshire. We spent a lot of time in Florida, in California, Illinois, and other states that many others have ignored. You are right, we have very, very strong support in the Cuban Community, and really up-and-down the state he has very good support. I feel good about that. He does have many different types of coalitions than the other candidates, and that has come from a lot of very hard work.

Beyond the hard work, it came from many years of service all the way back in the Reagan Justice Department and as U.S. Attorney in New York. People in Florida are well aware of the good work that he has done and the knowledge that he brings to issues. Both national and Florida-specific issues where he has gained perspective and knowledge.

KWN: It appears that Barack Obama may now have the inside track to the Democratic nomination. How do you see Mayor Giuliani matching up with Senator Obama. How would guess such a race would shake out?

Michael DuHaime: I think he has clearly struck a chord with Independent voters and did well in Iowa. It remains to be seen. I don’t want to prejudge the Democratic contest. I have a hard enough time handicapping our own contest (laughs). I think the important thing here, is that Rudy is the best candidate to take on -whether it be Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama- whoever is able to pull off the nomination. I think Rudy is the best candidate to take either one of them on. There is a very large ideological difference between Rudy and Barack Obama.

Barack Obama wants change, but remember change for the worse is not that good. Not all change is good. The change he wants calls for higher taxes. Obviously going backwards and [going] on defense on Terrorism. That [tendency] towards weakness is not good change. I give him that-it’s change. But I think Rudy go for the type of change that people want; and that is staying on offense in the terrorists war on us, having a very tough and strong foreign policy, peace through overwhelming strength. And domestically, not only Barack Obama, but any of the Democrats, they really want to raise taxes by an awful lot. The put it in the code of withdrawing the Bush Tax Cuts. But most people understand that that is an enormous tax increase. The want to vote for greater, more centralized government, where Rudy has called for much more choice in everything from education to health care. There are coming to be stark ideological differences between Rudy and Sen. Obama.

I also think, that from an electoral college point of view, Rudy is the only one who can take advantage of that match-up, because I think you have a real significant advantage for Rudy in states like Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut. States that are in Rudy’s geographic base that are traditionally Democrat-leaning states that Rudy could take because they are folks that are real familiar with Rudy’s record of leadership there. So I do think that we would get an advantage we would get in that match-up that would be very beneficial to the Republican Party.

KWN: You are one of the youngest people in American History to manage a presidential campaign. Does that distinction add in any pressure you may have already felt?

Michael DuHaime: I don’t think so. I don’t feel any more pressure. I feel pressure because I know that Rudy is the best candidate to win, and I know that this is a great opportunity for me to have a say in the future of our country. Folks that get involved as political operatives in both parties have a real sense of idealism. Most of us, I think, have a real sense of idealism in terms of what we do helps our country. We may not agree with each other. We may pick different candidates. But we do this, I hope, for the right reasons. I got involved with this campaign is because I know that Rudy would be a great President. So the pressure that I get-the pressure I put on myself- is knowing that I want to do my best to make that happen. I don’t want to fall short because I would feel that I would not only be letting Rudy down, but in many ways I would be letting the country down because our country deserves a leader like him.

KWN: Do you feel that, being a younger person yourself, you have a unique ability to craft a message that could reach out to younger voters that other campaign managers do not?

Michael DuHaime: I hope so. I feel in many ways we have taken a bit of an unconventional approach here. Maybe my relative youth makes me more open to that. Maybe more open to saying that you do not always have to do things the way that they were done 20, 30, 40 years ago. You are more open to change. So I hope that indicates that I do probably have a perspective on 18-29 year-0lds, or folks in their thirties, or folks with young families, I hope that from personal experience I have a good perspective on them.

More importantly, I think that Rudy, more than any other Republican, really attracts young voters . I have seen it first hand, types of crowds he attracts at colleges when he speaks. A lot of young people in their 20’s obviously remember very well September 11th and his performance thereafter. It is one of those memories that all of us have, But I suppose if you are younger that its one of your first memories of a terrible thing happening. Seeing someone that has both the toughness and the compassion to unite the country and express our grief and also help us to move on and move forward. That kind of leadership-young people really respond to that. I think they have seen it in Rudy.

There has been a lot of talk on both sides of the aisle about who could be a leader, who could unite the country, and it’s all speculation as to whether someone could with one exception-and that is Rudy. Rudy is the only person that has already united this country in a great time of crisis. People have already seen him. Not only young people, but I think especially the young people, have seen his leadership firsthand. It wasn’t a campaign… It wasn’t rhetoric… It wasn’t a TV commercial… It was real-and I think young people really respect that.