Posted on 02/01/2006 5:23:40 AM PST by areafiftyone
Political pundits have long discounted former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential prospects, claiming that his particular brand of tough-talking, socially moderate conservatism would never play south of the Mason-Dixon Line. But Rudy has never been one to listen to conventional wisdom, and lately at least, he has been turning up the heat in southern conservative political circles.
In just the last week, he endorsed Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry for re-election and met with Evangelicals in Florida. Most impressively, he actually outpaced U.S. Senator John McCain in a just-released Georgia poll, garnering the support of 28 percent of Georgia Republicans to McCain's 22 percent, echoing numbers in December's CNN/USA Today/Gallup nationwide poll. The conservative blog, RightWingNews reported last week that while Condoleezza Rice was the top choice of 230 conservative bloggers for the Republican nomination, Giuliani came in second, beating out U.S. Senator George Allen and Newt Gingrich. Nationwide, Rudy earned a 63 percent favorable rating in a Pew Research Center poll in October.
In addition to supporting Perry, Giuliani has planted a Texas-sized footstep in the Lone Star State—now with three more Electoral College votes than New York. Last spring, he became a name partner in a Houston law firm, Bracewell and Giuliani, noted for its Bush connections and roster of major energy clients.
The Catholic mayor is also busy burnishing his ties to Christian conservatives. Pat Robertson has said Rudy would make "a good president" and the mayor was a headliner for a fundraising committee supporting former Christian Coalition executive Ralph Reed in his bid to be Georgia's lieutenant governor. Last week, Giuliani dropped by an Orlando meeting of the Global Pastors Network and told the Evangelical leaders that "only God knows" if he will run for president. The group offered their prayers for him and he responded in kind, showing an openly devout side not many people had seen before: "I can't tell you from my heart how much I appreciate what you are doing—saving people, telling them about Jesus Christ and bringing them to God."
Still, Giuliani's southern strategy may be an uphill climb. "It's a real stretch for Giuliani to get out voters in southern Republican primaries," Richard Murray, head of the University of Houston's Center for Public Policy said. "He has too much baggage to get through the southern primaries." Murray said Giuliani's best shot may be as a "ticket balancer," a moderate vice president to a conservative ticket leader, especially if Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee.If that were the case, and Rudy got to take on the senator from New York, he would feel right at home, no matter where he was stumping for votes.
You realize we would not be having this conversation had 9/11 never happenned and the media turned the troubled Mayor into St. Rudy.
Agreed and I *much* rather see him running for the Senate in 2006 than the presidency in 2008. When I say I'd vote for Rudy over McCain, I'm really telling you how much I loathe McCain, not how much I like Rudy. Rudy, at least, took a hellhole of a city and made it halfway presentable. McCain's only accomplishments are getting captured by communists and getting the liberal media to like him.
WOW...it's unsettling when we discover how much these senators don't KNOW about how things work in government.
Electing a northeastern liberal RINO is even more dangerous. If a Democrat is in the White House at least the Republican portion of Congress will oppose his or her power grabs and unConstitutional agenda. If a liberal RINO is in the White House both Republican and Democrat congresscritters will support his or her unConstitutional agenda, the Republicans because of party loyalty and the Democrats because they agree with the agenda.
Say whatever you want, but I will never knowingly vote for a pro-abort, pro-sodomy, anti-gun rights candidate, whether he/she is a RINO, Democrat, or any other category.
Maybe, maybe not. I can tell you from the standpoint of someone who used to visit NYC every year that I didn't like the NYC prior to Rudy compared to once he became mayor. I know, from talking to cab drivers and other people that he wasn't the most popular on the block, but, not living there, but visiting there, I could see the differences from before, during and after and under Bloomberg it is backsliding (from a tourist point of view).
I watch Fox a lot and only rarely C-Span. I never watch sports of any kind. Allen maybe the perfect candidate but he better get out there and let people see him. I never see George Allen.
It really is, isn't it. Imagine if Cindy Sheehan were to win her seat and sit on something like the intelligence committee. She, Feingold, etc., were all whining about why they don't receive the top-secret briefings, only Rockefeller and Jane Harmon on the Dem side receive them and both Goss and Negreponte said that short of everyone wearing duct tape on their mouths there wasn't any way to trust it to more than the top tier, because everytime they tell people on a lower committee level it leaks out -- boy did the 's' hit the fan after that!
At this point there is nothing more dangerous than electing a democrat to office because when you do you are handing the key to the safe to Soros, Lewis, Move-on.org, etc... and unless you want to really see our country go down the tubes there is no way anyone should give one second of consideration to voting for anyone on the dem side, period... not because they are a bad person but because of who controls the party.
You're kidding right? Just look at the Senatorial representation from the state of NC. We're not only fooled, we're apparently Republican stalwarts. Conservative? What's that?
If and when the GOP big shots see that a socially liberal RINO nominee would lose many electoral votes from normally red states while not gaining any from blue states I believe they will begin finding ways to get more acceptable candidates into the 08 primaries. If they don't, I'm afraid we will end up with a Demo president in 09 whether I vote or not.
I believe in your right not to read them. :)
I would say that right now people are going with name recognition. Senators are a total turnoff to most voters so Allen will stay in the low numbers until more people know who he is. I saw him on Hannity & Colmes and he was still dull as dishwater when he spoke. He's a good conservative candidate but watching him is as much fun as watching grass grow. He needs a personality. I think he can do alot better he just needs to get people to watch him which is kinda hard to do because he makes you fall asleep.
The constant sports references don't help. :\
I know. We all know who is father was and of course he should be proud of him but its getting played out!
Someone posted a picture of him with his family - on this thread, or another one? - and it's a lovely formal portrait, but he's holding a FOOTball in it. There's no reason for the football to be there. As a non-sports fan, when he makes sports references, it really shuts me out from understanding what he's talking about. When he answers questions with something like "Well, it's like we're on the ten yard line and it's the fourth down", I don't know if that's a GOOD thing or a BAD thing. What's he trying to tell me???
It doesn't trump the Constitution of the United States of America. As Ben Franklin said: "Those that would give up essential liberty for temporary security deserve neither".
Well he's playing to all the football fans who he probably thinks are a big voting block like NASCAR fans supposedly are. It may be football but underneath its all part of political stunt to get votes. Every politician does something like that at one time or another when they are running. He's running for Senate so since his father was famous he's using that for his political stunt. Nothing wrong with that all politcians do it. He's just boring people with it.
In many cases, including this one, "law and order candidate" is a nice way of saying "gun-grabber".
In many cases, including this one, "law and order candidate" is a nice way of saying "gun-grabber".
Sorry, that logic doesn't fly. Dinkins was also a "gun-grabber," yet he wasn't seen as a law-and-order candidate and Democrats abandoned him in droves.
Rudy ran a campaign promising to clean up the city, and he did.
He has also admitted that policies instituted in New York will not necessarily work elsewhere in the country.
>I'm not sure I'd want to be a paleoconservative either...
What? You're rather not want to be a real conservative ala Ronald Reagan, Pat Buchanan and moi?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.