Prometheus 6

The best thing I can say is kind of, 'Leave my family alone,' just like I'll leave your family alone.

Giuliani Makes It Clear: 'Leave My Family Alone'

As Rudolph W. Giuliani has jumped to the top of most national polls for the GOP presidential race, a lingering question has been whether his recent bitter divorce and the fact that he's on his third marriage will drag him down among social conservatives.

Yesterday, the issue flared up at a town hall meeting in Derry, N.H. As her 5-year-old daughter played nearby, Katherine Prudhomme-O'Brien, 36, asked Giuliani why he should expect loyalty from GOP voters when his own children aren't backing him.

Giuliani's 21-year-old son, a student at Duke University, has been quoted as saying that he does not expect to campaign for his father. Last week, Slate, the online magazine, reported that Giuliani's 17-year-old daughter belonged to a Facebook group of Barack Obama supporters.

Giuliani's answer to the question about his kids, according to the Associated Press: "I love my family very, very much and will do anything for them. There are complexities in every family in America. The best thing I can say is kind of, 'Leave my family alone,' just like I'll leave your family alone."

Giuliani isn't the only GOP candidate with a complex family situation, and Democratic candidates so far seem not to be heeding his plea to leave his family out of the race. Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), whose first wife died in a car accident and who has been married to his second wife for more than 30 years, said this week: "I can hardly wait for one of these guys on the other side to tell me about family values."