Former mayor Rudy Giuliani waves before speaking during an summit October 5, 2007 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)

NEW YORK, NY October 05, 2007 —With the end of the fundraising period last Sunday, the presidential candidates have begun a new, intense phase of campaigning. WNYC’s Andrea Bernstein traveled to New Hampshir with former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. She has this campaign notebook.

Giuliani Hosts a Town Hall in New Hampshire

REPORTER: For former Mayor Giuliani, it’s morning in New Hampshire. New polls out this week show former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romnney’s lead over Giuliani in the granite state evaporating. And fundraising data revealed Giuliani has an edge there, too.

SHEEHAN: Hi Mayor Giuliani, I’m Carol Sheehan, I own the diner,

GIULIANI: How are you? It’s lovely

SHEEHAN: Welcome to the diner

GIULIANI:: Thank you thank you!

REPORTER: At the tiny Red Arrow Diner in Manchester, the mayor, his wife, Judith, and his entourage could barely squeeze behind the patrons at the counter eating their corn beef hash and eggs.

DINER MANAGER: It’s a little cramped in the diner.

JUDITH: this is, this is a nice little place.

REPORTER: But the despite the crush, the former Mayor seems about as relaxed and happy as he ever has been, leaning over customers sipping coffee from big white mugs with a retro design, answering questions about everything from baseball to energy independence

GIULIANI: Sun power, solar power wind power.

PATRON: I know the current admin

GIULIANI: – hydropower –

PATRON: has put billions of dollars into that, is that working?

GIULIANI: We haven’t licensed a nuclear power plant in 30 years.

REPORTER: As New York City Mayor, Giuliani was often testy and combative with questioners. But here he seems delighted, ebullient, almost, about an upcoming grilling from the press.

GIULIANI: Where are we going right down here? Okay, here we go!

REPORTER: he week didn’t start out so great for Giuliani. Conservatives in Salt Lake City threatened to bolt if the party nominated a pro-choice candidate – meaning Giuliani. But the Mayor’s campaign mounted a vigorous defense, dispatching surrogates, running a radio ad, and issuing lengthy internet documents defending his record. On the stump, Giuliani holds up a wallet-sized card, with the 12 commitments he’s says he’s made to the American people.

GIULIANI: If you disagree with most of those things then you should be against me, because I am actually going to do them.

REPORTER: With this kind of remark, the former Mayor is trying to pit himself against Mitt Romney, who was once pro-choice but now says he’s pro-life, and who was once supportive of gays, but now campaigns on a platform that is anti-gay marriage. But Giuliani’s also taking a dig at Hillary Clinton.

GIULIANI: And the reality is you reach out for every vote you’re not going to get every vote. You reach out for every vote, in my case, with the same program. I don’t have a special vote for one group or another, I don’t have an accent for different parts of the country this is just one me. This is what I believe.

REPORTER: By remaining consistent on abortion, he’s staking out for himself the position of the stalwart candidate. In fact, many of Giuliani’s own positions have shifted, most notably on gun control and immigration.

That’s an issue that is top of the mind-and raw- for New Hampshire voters. In Salem, New Hampshire, retired office manager Alice Jacobson rushes up to him in a chocolate shop, beseeching him to do something about immigration who she thinks aren’t “playing by the rules,” and are unfairly “going to the front of the line” to get benefits.

JACOBSON: and then when you took over the whole city got cleaned up and I’m hoping you’re able to the same thing with immigration

REPORTER: Jacobson believes he’ll do it. So does Roy Bouchard, who caught up with Giuliani at a town meeting in Windham. Bouchard knows that Giuliani thought immigrants should get services, and didn’t believe in turning in themto the INS when he was Mayor. But Bouchard shrugs it off.

BOUCHARD: It’s a different job, it’s a different jurisdiction, it wasn’t his job running the city as mayor to handle this problem.

REPORTER: For now, the Mayor is handling all problems with aplomb. When confronted by an angry, wheelchair bound woman who said she lives with chronic nerve pain at that town-hall meeting, the Mayor who once famously demeaned his critics literally laughed it off.

WOMAN: You have said if elected you would continue having federal agents raid and arrest the sick and dying for using marijuana.

GIULIANI: I haven’t said that

REPORTER: In fact, with wife Judi at his side, the Mayor is going out of his way to present as jolly a face as he can. Never mind that Giuliani has famously only been with his third wife some 7 or 8 years. Judi Giuliani is presenting herself as a fixture, saying at one stop, “we’ve always liked diner food,” at another “you’ve always liked dark chocolate.”

And for now, the Mayor is as happy as a kid in a candy store.

GIULIANI: Unh, look at all this!

REPORTER: In the Chocolate Moose in Salem, an array of sweets is laid out before him.

Store owner: Chocolate-dipped strawberries, chocolate dipped cashews, chocolate dipped chips, we have some cream puffs, éclair cake and pumpkin for fall.

GIULIANI: Mmm. And what was this?

STORE OWNER: Pumpkin.

GIULIANI: Oh man can’t have all of this!

REPORTER: But even though it’s early yet, even though many New Hampshire voters are still undecided, having it all is exactly what his campaign thinks is in reach. For WNYC, I’m Andrea Bernstein.