Posted on 07/07/2006 7:32:14 AM PDT by chiller
Twenty-eight months to go, and I can't wait.
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Since Condi insists she isn't interested - and for the moment I believe her - speculation ranges from base-pleasing Republicans like Sens. Bill Frist, Sam Brownback and my current favorite, George Allen, to the intriguing prospects of envelope-pushers like John McCain and Rudy Giuliani.
And these two intriguing figures constitute my point of the day. There are two things I have stopped saying: first, Mr. McCain can't win, and second, Rudy won't run.
I still don't believe Mr. McCain will be the '08 nominee, but his loyal support for the war has healed some distaste that the GOP base has had for him since he challenged Mr. Bush six years ago. His disconnect with many Republicans on overhauling campaign finance is still an anvil around his prospects, but I can no longer write him off.
As for Mr. Giuliani, I used to say that he won't run and couldn't win if he did. The gay-friendly, abortion-rights-supporting ex-New York mayor whose legacy includes an embrace of gun control? It would seem highly unlikely.
Unless you were in a room with me at the Hotel Crescent Court last month as the Dallas County Republican Party welcomed Mr. Giuliani to a fundraiser also heralding local congressional candidates.
I served as master of ceremonies, and there was a thoroughly polite welcome for the GOP primary survivors who will try to unseat Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson and Chet Edwards.
But it was Mr. Giuliani who put a room of Reagan-loving red-staters into a positive swoon.
He did it with steadfast support for the Bush war doctrine, coupled with a passion for tight borders that even the still-admired incumbent cannot muster. He did it with strong fiscal conservatism, another Bush weakness. And he did it with a passionate pitch for school choice, an issue Republicans have neglected - mysteriously, since scads of Republicans and Democrats want it.
His content was great. His style was even better. His sharp wit and off-the-cuff comfort are miles beyond the average glazed, scripted politician. He sports a good-natured partisan streak that puts him a head above Mr. McCain, who seems to gag on any sentence suggesting that a Democrat might be wrong.
This is not my prediction that Mr. Giuliani's hand will rest on a Bible at the swearing-in on Jan. 20, 2009. But the Bible-embracing core of the GOP shows a willingness to consider him as he includes evangelical groups in his curious tour of various Republican constituencies.
He will not launch a national gun grab, leaving gun statutes to the cities. He will not push for nationwide gay marriage, happy to leave those decisions to the states, where the Constitution says they belong. He will not pound the bully pulpit for affirmative action, leaving that to the courts.
And speaking of the courts, he speaks glowingly of Mr. Bush's Supreme Court selections, Samuel Alito and John Roberts, suggesting he does not necessarily dream of packing the court with sure-fire abortion-rights opponents.
Throw in the tasty imagery of the Mayor of America wiping the debate stage floor with Mrs. Clinton or virtually anyone else, and it's the kind of thing to make a Republican heart quicken.
I don't know yet whether I can be a Rudy voter, but I'd enjoy watching him try to make me one.
Mark Davis is a columnist for the Dallas Morning News. The Mark Davis Show is heard weekdays nationwide on the ABC Radio Network. His e-mail address is mdavis@wbap.com.
Must have been a sleep when we got two terms of Clinton.
Not to mention that neither Bush was an early favorite of the Christian Right.
"Unfortunately its easier to point out weaknesses of the current candidates than to find an unassailable candidate"
The only "weaknesses" that I have seen the Left banter about on George Allen; He is a poor speaker, ( Is our current 2 term President?), He wore a confederate flag pin in HS, He got in trouble in college for hunting squirrels on campus, and he sometimes chews tobacco.
Those are all bonus points in the Red states, and wont turn off any conservative Republicans in the blue states.
Thank you heaps and heaps from all of us inarticulate, ignorant Southerners!!!!!!!
Wonder why that was? Now who could have went into the voting polls and chose not to vote for ReadMyLips or Dole? Could it have been those same types of folks who voted overwhelmingly for Reagan? <---- rhetorical
You Rudyophiles can dream of an America where sodomites run rampant, abortions are performed in shopping mall kiosks, and all private gun ownership is banned.
This nation is still inhabited by a majority who honor and respect the ideals of Jefferson, Madison, and Reagan. And it's these types of Americans that will ensure your hopes and aspirations remain just that.
Rudy Giuliani is going to be the Colin Powell of the 2008 election . . . the closet Democrat who gets paraded around on the campaign trail and at the convention to secure support from some constituent group or another.
You Rudyophiles can dream of an America where sodomites run rampant, abortions are performed in shopping mall kiosks, and all private gun ownership is banned
George Allen lost Super Bowl V to Shula a very long time ago. The only political connection he had was that he allegedly ran a play Richard Nixon drew up.
I doubt that his father's one loss in the Super Bowl (which would have been a shutout had Garo Ypremian hadn't tried to play QB) provides political name recognition for the son in 2006.
Well, we'll see.
So we shall, milady.
You can't possibly be serious. Are we talking about the same city here? The one with the highest tax burden in the U.S.? The one with more per-capita government spending than anywhere else in the U.S.?
Then, we get another Bill Clinton
I learned my lesson in '92 when I voted for the chicken man
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