When asked if his beloved New York Yankees would make it to the World Series this year, Rudy Giuliani said the team should concentrate on the playoffs first.

"You can't think about the World Series yet," the former New York City mayor said. "They gotta think about the (Cleveland) Indians and figure out how to beat the Indians. Then we'll talk about the World Series."

But when it comes to Giuliani's strategy for winning the presidency, he's already skipped the playoffs for the big show. Instead of drawing distinctions between himself and his Republican rivals, Giuliani tells voters that he's the best Republican to go toe-to-toe with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who leads in the Democratic primary polls.

"I'm the only Republican candidate that can beat Hillary Clinton," Giuliani has said.

Yesterday, Giuliani talked baseball and disparaged Clinton during a daylong trip to southern New Hampshire that included stops at three diners and a chocolate shop and a town hall meeting in Windham. With his wife, Judith, at his side, he told reporters outside the Red Arrow Diner in Manchester that Clinton would cost New Hampshire taxpayers $3,000 each if she repeals President Bush's tax cuts. At a town hall meeting in Windham, he likened Clinton's health care plan to socialized medicine: costs would go up and quality down if her plan were implemented, he said.

The message seemed to resonate with some Republican voters who stopped to see Giuliani yesterday. At the town hall meeting, several people mentioned Clinton proposals they disliked before asking Giuliani what he would do differently. No one asked him about the Republican candidates. No one questioned him about his moderate social views or his personal life, which many conservative pundits believed would derail his candidacy.

Michael Keane, a Nashua stone mason who happened to stop by a bar across from one of Giuliani's stops, Norton's Classic Café, said his fear of Clinton as president could determine which Republican he chooses in the primary.

"Am I anti-Clinton? Yes," he said. "I'm 100 percent against Hillary Clinton."

Keane isn't thrilled about Giuliani's "family values" - Giuliani's been married three times and has had a tenuous relationship with his two children since he announced his divorce from their mother -- his second wife -- at a press conference.

But Keane worries that his favorite Republican candidate, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, may not have the same name recognition as Giuliani, who became known as "America's Mayor" for his leadership in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

"I'm going to do what's best for the party," he said.

But other Republican voters, like Ray Drevojan of Hudson, aren't quite ready to throw their weight behind Giuliani.

"Don't count Mitt out yet," he said before the town hall meeting started. Giuliani, he said, "has a tainted past with his family." Romney's past is "a little cleaner," he said, which may make him more electable than Giuliani.

The assault on Clinton began in earnest last month, when Giuliani issued an internet ad and ran a full-page ad in The New York Times blasting Clinton for remarks she made to the multinational troop commander in Iraq. During a congressional hearing, when Gen. David Petraeus said troops had made progress in the war in Iraq, Clinton said his reports required "the willing suspension of disbelief."

At the town hall meeting, Giuliani mocked Clinton's plan to give a $5,000 bond to every baby born in the country. When a questioner said he was confused about Clinton's stance on the war, Giuliani said he keeps a scorecard for how many times Clinton has altered her stance. "This is her sixth," he said.

Single page