Speaking to an NRA conference today regarding his past support of gun control as Mayor of New York City:

"Some people call it excessive. I thought it was intense. But the reality is I was trying to achieve a result, which is to reduce crime in New York. That is not necessarily what is needed now."

If I'm not mistaken, we've just witnessed a presidential candidate shooting himself in the foot by stating that crime does not need to be reduced.

In 1995, on Charlie Rose, Giuliani said "The NRA, for some reason, I think, goes way overboard."

But today, Giuliani told the NRA conference: "I would love to have your support in the future."

Against guns when mayor. (-: :-) For guns when president? Is this guy the poster child of two faced politics or what?

I don't consider the secret in the movie The Secret to be a secret at all. Norman Vincent Peale came out with The Power of Positive Thinking decades ago for one thing. And I think there have been many others who have followed suit.

But I do think it is a good movie and one that covers a real and important topic.

The insight is, for those who havn't grasped it yet (I'm 45 and just grasped it fully so don't worry if you havn't,) that thoughts become things. That our thinking determines our future. And if our thinking is negative, our future will be negative. Athletes use the Law of Attraction when they visualize their future to be successful - when they visualize themselves running their race or playing their game successfully. If we live our future in the present so to speak, the way we wish it to be, it may very well turn out that way according the law of attraction. If we relish on a troublesome past or present reality, we get more of the same in the future.

I took some seminars at Landmark Education 10 years ago as well and they in part taught the same thing in a round about way. What I learned in the seminars combined with a studious watching and re-watching (even taking notes) of The Secret has allowed me to grasp the insight. I intend to try it out personally.

But what of the ramifications for politics? Criticizing political opponents comes with the territory with politics. Lowering approval ratings by focusing on the negative seems a common sense approach. And I think even in light of the Law of Attraction such things are a good idea - up to a certain point.

Should there be a point where discussion transforms into the positive? Where should that point be? To what extent should the negative be dismissed? Is the Law of Attraction a real law of science? Do we perpetuate a war by focusing a lot of discussion on a war? (In the movie one commentator says that to be anti war you have to be pro peace for example, not anti war.)

What of the perceived "Democrats don't have any strategy of their own" issue - would shifting to the positive have an effect on that perception of our Party? Are we too busy shining spotlights on our opposition's mistakes to the point where we end up not communicating our version of the future?