I guess if you live in Iowa or New Hampshire you think you have the right to ask a candidate any personal questions you care to ask.

Well, on Thursday Rudy Giuliani let it be known that some questions are off limits.

DERRY, N.H. (AP) - Republican Rudy Giuliani said Thursday that people should “leave my family alone” when asked by a New Hampshire woman why the presidential candidate should expect loyalty from voters when he doesn’t get it from his children.

Giuliani has a daughter who has indicated support for Democrat Barack Obama and a son who said he didn’t speak to his father for some time. His ugly divorce from their mother, Donna Hanover, was waged publicly while Giuliani was mayor of New York. Giuliani has since remarried.

Answering questions at a town-hall meeting, Giuliani was asked why he should expect loyalty from GOP voters when his children aren’t backing him.

“I love my family very, very much and will do anything for them. There are complexities in every family in America,” Giuliani said calmly and quietly. “The best thing I can say is kind of, ‘Leave my family alone, just like I’ll leave your family alone.’”

His comments were greeted with a smattering of applause from the audience of about 120 people. Giuliani urged them to judge him based on his performance as mayor and a federal prosecutor, and he launched into a list of his successes such as reducing crime and welfare and prosecuting organized crime figures and drug dealers.

When I step into the voting booth to vote for someone I am voting for person whose name is on the ballot.

I’m not voting for his or her spouse, parents, children, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, grandparents, great-grandparents, or cousins.

Every family has its problems and not every child is especially supportive of either or one parent, especially if that child is still quite young and in his or her early 20s.

Ronald Reagan’s two children with Nancy had a running feud going with their parents during his entire presidency and before and after, but it didn’t affect the job he did as president.

Judge the candidate by his or her record and not by his or her relationship with his or her children, because in five or ten years those children more than likely will defend their father to the death.

It’s none of my business what goes on in a candidate’s family and it’s none of the business of the woman who was rude enough to ask the question. Neither is it the business of the people of Iowa and New Hampshire who get to be in the spotlight once every four years, and they don’t always pick a winner.