NEW YORK, NY October 10, 2007 —Former mayor Rudy Giuliani slugged it out in GOP presidential debate Tuesday in Dearborn, Michigan with a candidate who wasn't even on the stage. WNYC's Andrea Bernstein has more.

REPORTER: You pretty much can't go wrong among GOP primary voters by attacking Hillary Clinton, and Rudy Giuliani didn't miss an opportunity to do so. Right off the bat, in answer to a question about whether there was a downside to booming hedge funds, Giuliani quoted an old Clinton comment about the perils of an unregulated free market, without exactly answering the question himself.

After a series of Clinton critique, Guiliani charged that "everyone in the world" wants to lower corporate taxes except the "leading democratic candidate. Not to be outdone, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who had been attacking Giuliani's record as mayor, jumped in with his own Clinton jab. Romney said he's actually run a government and implemented a health care plan.

ROMNEY: I can't wait to debate with her, because I've done it, she's just talked about it.

REPORTER: Though Giuliani is leading in most national polls Giuliani and Romney are fighting it out for front runner status in New Hampshire. For WNYC, I'm Andrea Bernstein.