The president is the leader of the party. His social values define much of what is addressed in congress.
The President is the leader of the country - not simply his party.
Don't be miopic.
Right on!
Exactly right. If Bush was in line with Giuliani on all issues, the war would be fought the same, but there would be two Kennedy/O'conner milk toast moderates on the SCOTUS right now, making liberal minded decisions the past year, there would be ZERO opposition to gay marriage and criticism of those states that passed the bans at the behest of the majority of the voters. There would be millions of embryos being created to harvest for stem cells which cure nothing, because all benefits are found in adult and umbillical stem cells, not embryonic ones. There would be no support for a ban on partial birth abortion from the White House. And the Lacy and Conner Peterson Act wouldn't have been signed, because Giuliani doesn't believe a fetus is a person. RINOs will never win as President. And Giuliani is a RINO. All the rah rah stuff about Giuliani by people is getting old. He does not reflect the GOP plank. It doesn't get any clearer than that. The plank isn't being changed because the majority of Republicans support the plank as it is. It defies logic that suddenly, 51% of Republicans will support a candidate for President who disagrees with half the plank that 80% of Republicans support in total. It won't happen. The 2008 GOP Presidential nominee will be a REAL conservative that will support constructionist Judges, will oppose any gay marriage proposals, will oppose partial birth and other abortions, will support the death penalty for murderers, will oppose useless embryonic stem cell research, and will ALSO fight the War on Terror as agressively as Bush, as strongly as Giuliani would, but better than Giuliani will be a REAL conservative across the board. Not a RINO like Giuliani. My patience on this is wearing thin. Most Republicans are sick of RINOS, they will not pick one for President. Especially as sick as they are as McCain, they won't pick a guy that's even more to the middle than McCain. Won't happen.