Posted on 08/21/2006 6:16:02 AM PDT by areafiftyone
The S.C. Republican Party’s sponsorship of “An Evening Honoring Rudy Giuliani” last week spoke volumes.
It reflected what some said is a shift in attitude toward GOP candidates with more liberal views on social issues.
There’s a greater degree of tolerance and acceptance, party officials said.
Giuliani, who rose to national prominence for his take-charge performance after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, supports gay rights, gun control and legalized abortion, which puts him at odds with most Republicans.
Nevertheless, he has traveled the country extensively on behalf of GOP candidates this year while acknowledging his own interest in a possible 2008 presidential bid.
Although his liberal stance on social issues is likely to disqualify him with religious conservatives, the former New York City mayor remains in great demand as a speaker before Republican groups.
In this visit — his first major political trip to South Carolina — Giuliani attended a fundraiser for conservative GOP congressional candidate Ralph Norman, the one-term state representative who is challenging Democratic U.S. Rep. John Spratt, a 24-year House veteran in a hotly contested race in the 5th District.
Giuliani ended the day in Charleston at a star-studded $2,500-a-couple fundraiser for the state Republican Party.
He packed the place.
“Rudy is a very popular figure,” GOP chairman Katon Dawson said. “We didn’t have any problem with him coming.”
Giuliani, affectionately known as “America’s mayor,” is seen as middle-of-the-road by most voters nationally, according to Rasmussen Reports, an electronic survey company.
It found 36 percent of Americans see him as a political moderate, 29 percent said conservative, and 15 percent said liberal. Twenty percent are not sure.
Former state GOP chairman Barry Wynn said the party needs to take a fresh look at the way it regards new voters, especially those new residents who’ve settled along the coast and are starting to have an impact on state party politics.
Those voters tend to be more progressive in outlook and are more inclined to support someone like Giuliani.
“I think Rudy could be more popular in South Carolina than most people would think,” Wynn said.
The debate in 2008 isn’t going to be about tax cuts, abortion or Social Security reform — Republican favorites.
“The overarching issues this time will be national security and leadership,” Wynn said. “Everything else will fit under that.”
Such a scenario favors Giuliani, Greenville consultant Chip Felkel said.
Francis Marion University political scientist Neal Thigpen, a GOP activist, said Giuliani is in a “special category.”
He’s a “glittering personality” with star quality who can get away with supporting legalized abortion and gay rights.
His position on those social issues “would not hurt him as bad over the long haul as one may think. If John McCain had the same position, it would hurt him a lot worse.”
Needless to say, the hard-core religious right won’t surrender territory on social issues. They’d rather go down in flames than win.
But unless terrorists no longer are a threat to the United States, national security and leadership will be at the top of the issues heap in 2008.
Voters won’t be concerned about gay rights or abortion. What matters most will be their own security in a volatile world.
And the candidate who stands to benefit is Giuliani.
“If your house is on fire,” Wynn said, “you want a guy with the hose.”
While I think your position on this is indeed beastly, I must give you credit for at least being honest about your pro-abortion views. I have no doubt that most of the Guiliani fans around here are in the same boat as you but don't have the courage to admit it on such a pro-life forum.
Where do you get the idea that I am Pro-abortion? The refusal to bow down to a fertilized egg and pretend it is a fully realized human is in no way pro abortion.
"I don't consider fudge packing, gun grabbing, or baby killing to be progress."
Here, here, I second that motion!
Thanks to our open borders, the "makings" of the next attack may already be in place.
We can survive an attack, but can we survive further social decline with a RINO running the country????
We're in the process of rotting from the inside out.
Rudy is a Republican Hillary (and sometimes further left of her). Also, Rudy has said some bad things about the Iraq war as of late.
In NYC, to be a Republican you have to be a Democrat, and to be a Democrat you have to be Green/Socialist/other lefty (To the outside world)
As Sir Winston Churchill said: "A love for tradition has never weakened a nation, indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril."
Wonderful find, Liz. Too bad the Republicans scoff at such things.
Have you seen the most recent issue of "The American Spectator?" Deroy Murdock has a fabulous piece about Giuliani. It's really worth reading. If one has an open mind, that is (as I gather you do).
I will try and find it, thanks.
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