Warm welcome

Customers burst into applause as Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani walked into a downtown restaurant Friday morning, grabbing hands and flashing his classic grin.

The event was the first public appearance in El Paso County for the GOP candidate.

“How fast is your heart beating?” one woman asked another after taking her picture with Giuliani.

“What a nice-looking guy,” another woman said after he shook her hand.

“Mr. President, nice to see you,” one man told Giuliani.

Most customers at the Olive Branch pulled out their cell phone cameras to get a picture with the former Big Apple mayor as they tried to make a New York connection with him.

Patrons gave him any piece of paper they had for him to sign, including Denver Broncos schedules and a copy of his speech on the third anniversary of Sept. 11.

Giuliani sat down to have a cup of coffee while customers pelted him with questions about the environment, Pakistan, health care and immigration.

As he drew a picture of a fence on a paper coffee coaster, he said he has plans to create an identification system for immigrants.

“We should know who’s here,” Giuliani said. “Every other country has a system, we’re just catching up.”

He responded to criticism from opponent Mitt Romney, who accused Giuliani of supporting illegal immigration when he was New York’s mayor.

“Look, there’s nobody running that’s done more about safety and security than I have,” Giuliani said.

“Nobody has the record on that that I have. That included dealing with illegal immigration, and I did it in a way that brought more safety, more security, than just about any other place in the country.”

Giuliani’s campaign workers handed out fliers containing the candidate’s 12 commitments, starting with, “I will keep America on offense in the terrorists’ war on us.”

“It’s exactly the same agenda everywhere I go,” Giuliani told the customers.

“I don’t have a different agenda for Colorado than I do for New York.”

Restaurant owner Patricia Meltzer said Giuliani’s campaign contacted her husband to set up the event.

“It was an experience of a lifetime,” Meltzer said. “But, I haven’t made my decision personally.”

Meltzer’s daughter, Mollie, 12, had no idea that Giuliani’s appearance would be a big deal.

“Rudy Giuliani? I’m like, who’s that?” she said. “I’m like, sweet, cool, wow.”

James Bollinger had no idea that Giuliani would appear at the restaurant. She doesn’t know whether she will vote for him for president because she didn’t know that he was running.

“I think everybody remembers him from 9/11, so there’s a soft spot in everybody’s heart for him,” she said.

After meeting Giuliani, Douglas Bagley from Salt Lake City thinks the candidate should run on the same ticket as former Massachusetts Gov. Romney.

For now, though, Bagley plans to vote for Romney.

“I’m a one wife kind of guy,” he said about his aversion to Giuliani, who has been married three times.

Giuliani was also scheduled to appear at private fundraisers: a $1,000-a-head roundtable at the home of Sinton Dairy executive Joel Midkiff and a $250-per-person lunch reception at The Broadmoor.

He is the second Republican candidate to visit Colorado Springs in the past month or so.

Romney spoke at the county GOP’s Lincoln Day dinner on July 18.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0184 or sarah.pulliam@gazette.com