I, unfortunately, had to miss Rudy Giuliani’s speech this morning. But the buzz here at the Washington Briefing is generally very positive.

NZ Bear, luckily, was there and provides very good coverage of it.

he hit abortion head on, going through what he would do to reduce the number of abortions:

“First, I will veto any reduction in the impact of the Hyde amendment. “

“I will support any reasonable suggestion that promises to reduce the number of abortions. I support parental notifications and i will continue to and i support and will continue to support the ban on partial birth abortion.”

“I will reduce the red tape that makes adoption so difficult… I’ll make the… adoption tax credit permanent.”

Here’s the deal. I’ve been out roaming the hall talking to people and there is a consensus among the people here that Giuliani did what he had to do to stop a hemorrage in the general, but he did not pull them to him in the primary.

That’s probably what he needed to do. These are folks who are deeply, deeply skeptical of Rudy. They know he is not one of them. But they also know, as he showed them today, that he’d at least be passable, if not palatable, in the general.

[UPDATE:] Jim has some more. Also, I talked to some people I really, really respect and the three of them all said the same thing stuck with them. Giuliani talked about abortion rates versus adoption rates and kept stumbling over which was rising and which was falling. It was a minor stumble in his speech, but these three, who are thought leaders in this movement, all noticed it and it stuck with them.

Pay attention to Nathan Bradfield’s blogging on Giuliani. He’s been here live blogging it and is really in tune with the crowd here.