Rudy Giuliani, US presidential hopeful and ex-hardline-Mayor of New York, says that under his command, the US will be prepared for anything, up to and including an alien attack.

He made the rather unlikely claim at a public conference, when a young lad in the audience piped up with the following:

"If (there's) something living on another planet and it's bad and it comes over here, what would you do?"

What followed was a masterclass in political question answering. Giuliani first paused to applaud the question. Then he took a little time to discuss how unique the question was. Both these are tried and tested political stalling techniques.

Next, he managed to use the unusual nature of the question to demonstrate how surprisingly alike people are.

Finally he addressed the boy's concerns: "Of all the things that can happen in this world, we'll be prepared for that, yes we will. We'll be prepared for anything that happens," he said.

And, proving that he is politician to rank up there with the true greats, dear old Rudy managed to score lots of press (guilty) and, you will have noticed, still failed to answer the poor kid's question.

Happily, the whole thing is on YouTube. Enjoy. ®

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