Judith Giuliani on the Campaign Trail

More please. Rudy Giuliani carries around some extra baggage in the form of two ex-wives. That's why he needs to put Judith front and center.

The AP recounts the two pumpkin-shopping and goofing around earlier today in New Hampshire:

The former New York mayor and his wife, Judith, stopped by a roadside farm stand on Sunday, buying some pumpkins and candied apples. Wandering through Lull's Farms, Giuliani and his wife picked up decorative pumpkins and compared their shapes with her walnut-sized, orange jack-o-lantern ring.

``Pick one that's shaped like my ring,'' she told her husband and they dug through crates of dirt-caked pumpkins.

Judith Giuliani later returned to her ring while standing in line to check out.

``You like my pumpkin ring?'' Judith Giuliani asked a young girl. ``When you push it, it lights up. But I think the battery is dead by now.''

The next part is so much like a sit-com, I'm not even sure I believe it:

Her husband, playing along, told the young girl that Judith was lucky they were already married.

``If we weren't already engaged, I'd say it was the engagement ring,'' Giuliani said, looking away from a display of fruit salsas and flashing a broad smile.

A voter then ribbed the thrice-married Giuliani and shouted ``Again?'' in a mocking tone.

The couple seemed not to hear the comment and moved ahead in line.

True or not, that's funny and I think stories like this help more than they hurt. They make Giuliani human in the same way that President Bush's folksy charm made him seem likeable. President Bush used that charm to great effect against a wooden Gore and an aloof Kerry. If he makes it through the primaries he's going to need it to counteract that hypnotic harpy, Hillary Clinton.

It's working already:

The couple also posed for a picture with a giant pumpkin, painted with Giuliani's face.

"I feel like I know him much better know,'' said Paula Lalime Marrois, who painted the gourd and calls herself a Giuliani supporter. "I looked at all the details of his face.''

posted by Gabriel Malor at 12:37 AM

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