George Will makes the case:
Giuliani has a way to go before he can seal the deal, but he’s saying the right things. Conservatives can trust him to nominate judges who will follow the Constitution rather than reshape social policy from the bench. That’s what conservatives want to hear, and if Giuliani strongly makes that point, it will help him. There are still going to be questions about Giuliani’s position on abortion and gun control, but I don’t see those as being fatal to his campaign — unless he bombs them.
Giuliani’s biggest asset is his leadership — he did great things for the City of New York, and he’s a tenacious when it comes to getting things done. This country needs someone like that. Even if Giuliani alienates some on the social right, he can also bring in many moderates, and it’s the moderates abandoning the GOP in 2006 that cost the Republicans control of Congress.
Guiliani would be an absolutely ideal nominee for 2008….if you’re a Democrat. Aside from his deep-rooted ties to shady NYC heavyweights (remember the embarrassing Bernard Kerik kerfuffle?), his left-wing positions on social issues would tear the national Republican Party apart in a way not seen in a major party since Democrats were pushing Dan Rather around in 1968 Chicago.
But with a political resume that positions Giuliani to the left of Hillary Clinton on issues most important to evangelicals (the largest demographic of Republican loyalists), Giuliani is still unlikely to win over many moderates giving his unwavering hawkishness on the war in Iraq and his straight-down-the-line support for economic conservatism, which flies in the face of the nation’s undisputed shift towards populism….a trend that shows no signs of waning anytime soon.
Of course, Presidential elections aren’t about issues. They’re about personality and “cultural connections”. How does Rudy stack up on that front? Well, it’d be very hard to find someone more shrill and more annoying than Hillary, but Rudy manages, exuding a level of New York arrogance that I just don’t see playing in Muskogee. Every time he opens his mouth and exudes his brash, know-it-all demeanor to American audiences, his poll ratings will drop a couple of points.
Republicans, I beg you! PLEASE! NOMINATE! THIS! MAN!
America may be ready for a female president, but they’re not ready for one who just pretends to be female.
Its nice to see Mark;s. delusion continue. Sorry Mark, but centrist democrats, independents and moderate republicans as well as this conservative Like Rudy. As for your comment about his personality, well no one is more shrill, less appealing than Broom Hilda herself. As for the comment about so called shady sites…please…Hillary has more skeleton in her closet than a misissippi graveyard…
Aaron, everyone knows Hillary’s dirty laundry. Most people only know Rudy because of his bullhorn moment at Ground Zero after 9-11. And when his dirty laundry comes out, he’ll make Hillary look like a Sunday school teacher. Don’t get me wrong. She’s a horrible candidate. But at least from the standpoint of a Republican nominee in a national election, Rudy Giuliani is worse.