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HUDSON, N.H., 1:15 a.m. — One person who is not hopping on the “change” bandwagon is Rudy Giuliani.

“In four or five days, the word ‘change’ has been in the news more often than I’ve ever heard it used,” the former New York mayor said in a speech here Tuesday. “It’s like in the old days when somebody at the bank asked for change. Keep the change! Or, can you change a dollar bill? Change, change, change, change, change! Everybody’s talking about change!”

The crowd laughed, but Giuliani had a serious point to make.

“It’s got to go beyond change,” he said. “Change for what?”

In a town-hall meeting at a local grange hall, replete with ribbons from the state fair, the former New York City mayor answered exactly that — if he were to be elected president. Democrats want to raise your taxes, Giuliani told the crowd. That, he said, is a bad change.

Making America energy-independent — something Giuliani pledged to do — would be an example of a good change, he said.

“When [the Democrats] talk about change, a lot of the change they’re talking about isn’t change going forward,” he told 150 spporters this afternoon. “It’s changing and stepping back.”

Not Rudy. “I want to go forward,” he said.

But his speech was not entirely forward-looking. It ended with an anecdote about the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks.

— Thomas Kaplan