Rudy Giuliani is the only Republican presidential candidate speaking at a conference this weekend for conservatives in Raleigh (Heath Shuler’s speaking, too, and yes, I said “conservative conference”). The mayor, in a lunchtime speech today, knocked the Democrats who debated last night, especially on the issues of health care and education:

“I’ll be darned if I’m going to concede that Democrats care more about poor people than we do,” Giuliani said during his brief base-building trip to the home state of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards.

Giuliani said Democratic calls for mandatory universal health care would only exacerbate the cost of care by putting the system in the hands of bureaucrats.

“They’re moving toward socialized medicine so fast, it’ll make your head spin,” Giuliani said of the debate, adding that private competition and limits on malpractice lawsuits could help bring down the cost of care. “When we want to cover poor people, as we should, we give them vouchers.”