Posted on 07/09/2006 10:47:24 AM PDT by kddid
There's no doubt about it, writes columnist Robert Novak: Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is running for the GOP presidential nomination in 2008.
Novak made this declaration in his July 8 nationally syndicated column, reporting that friends of Giuliani confided he has told them of his intention to run for the White House.
Giuliani - dubbed "America's Mayor" for his cool courage and spectacular leadership during his city's 9/11 emergency - leads at least one national poll, beating runner-up Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., by a healthy five points, Novak reports, citing last month's national Gallup poll that measured presidential preferences by registered Republicans.
In the poll Giuliani had 29 percent, McCain 24 percent, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich a mere 8 percent. Novak added that all year Giuliani has run either first or second to McCain, with the rest of the presidential possibilities far behind in national polls.
Giuliani brought the delegates to their feet at the 2004 Republican National Convention with his stem-winding speech attacking the Democrat party, John Kerry and John Edwards while heaping praise on President Bush. He has wide popular appeal nationally.
But all is not moonlight and rose for the moderate New York Republican. The path to the Republican nomination could prove hard to travel for Giuliani due to his present liberal stands on such hot button issues as abortion, gay rights and gun control. Novak writes that GOP strategists warn he must change his position on at least one of these issues if he hopes to win the nomination.
Pro-abortion + anti-gun = NON-STARTER
Good lord. That's the truth....and the only reason the GOP "controls" the Senate.
I think Joe Public has learned that ANY senator for president is a bad idea.
Where is Giuliani on gun control and illegal immigration?
"If he runs, this will be like 1976 all over again -- a socially liberal/country club republican vs. the choice of socially conservative republicans choose.
Socially liberal he is not. His approach to every problem is to arrest those causing it and throw them in jail. Trials later on; in the meantime, the cops can rough them up.
The only thing anyone needs to know about Giuliani is that he endorsed Cuomo for N.Y. governor. No real conservative (heck, no Republican) in his right mind would EVER do such a thing. As president, he would be a complete disaster. There has to be a better choice.
Rudy only has to be against Roe v Wade and in favor of the states deciding the issue.
Most Republicans are not for the total outlawing of abortion and I think Rudy can navigate this issue if he's sensitive to the hard core pro-lifers.
Pro-choice Republicans do not mock the base and are in favor of more restrictions than their Democratic counterparts. However, most are OK with "choice" up to a cut off date.
Giuliani is the Lieberman of the Republican party. Both social liberals, yet both are hawks on Iraq. I don't buy the line, Iraq trumps everything else. As a Christian conservative my support goes to George Allen.
Ditto that. Everything should be at the state level except for national defense...........
National defense is the ONLY national issue for a long time to come IMO.
Let's get all the social issues at the state level where they belong.
---Socially liberal he is not. His approach to every problem is to arrest those causing it and throw them in jail. Trials later on; in the meantime, the cops can rough them up.---
That's not conservative. That's fascist.
Another example of Rudy's "leadership" (sarcasm).
Mayor Rudy hired Bill Bratton as NYC Police Commissioner. Bratton proceeded to clean up the city and reduced crime. In the process, Bratton became a media darling, and was lionized by NY's beautiful people.
That's when paranoid Rudy fired him, and drove him out of the limelight in an unconscionable, needless bloodbath. Bratton was shell-shocked at the depths of Rudy's duplicity.
Nobody but Rudy is allowed to get credit for anything. God only knows what he'd do with presidential power. Rudy has little or no credibility, and certainly no principles.
While I don't care for many of Rudy's social positions, he is not the dealkiller that McCain is. He wouldn't be my first choice but I know he will take the WOT seriously, is unafraid to take unpopular positions if they will get results, and nobody has to question if he's a genuine Republican.
I hope the party can do better but I *could* vote for Rudy. I'll never vote for McCain.
some choice....like would you like kidney stones or a kick to the groin...
Allen is my first choice. I *think* I can live with Guiliani because I believe he would make an excellent commander in chief and I consider the WOT issue #1. Besides, he's not McCain.
Anybody but McCain!
Actually Rudy turned out to be right, Pataki turned out to be a way bigger Liberal than Mario ever was.
The gun issue is dead until enough dems or rino's like giuliano get into office.
What a choice, Hitlery or Hitlery Light.
It's revealing of RINO Rudy's left-leaning instincts that although he had no mandate or legislative role as NYC Mayor, Rudy aggressively used his office to promote gay rights, unfettered abortion on demand with the government picking up the tab, gun control---any hot button issue he could use to suckup to liberals.
Rudy made his bed. Now he's gonna lie about it to further his political ambitions.
---Socially liberal he is not. His approach to every problem is to arrest those causing it and throw them in jail. Trials later on; in the meantime, the cops can rough them up.---
"That's not conservative. That's fascist.
So some have said. On the other hand, all the street criminals mysteriously disappeared during his reign. They didn't all go to jail, either.
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