Posted on 01/23/2007 10:03:35 AM PST by BunnySlippers
"If you can go toe-to-toe with liberals in Massachusetts and New York City and acquit yourself well, you are prepared for D.C.," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.
**
Mead credits Giuliani with mental toughness rare among elected officials. Instead of seeking consensus, Giuliani openly defied many of the city's leading liberals on crime and welfare reform.
"Giuliani confronted not only the bureaucracy, but the community groups and the academics and the journalists and all those who said you couldn't be tough on the poor," Mead said. "He said that you can be — you can demand that they play by the rules. And he got away with it."
**
"It's very difficult for such a person to win Republican primaries," said Jack Pitney, a professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College.
Difficult, but not impossible, Norquist said. As an example, he pointed to Ronald Reagan.
"Reagan passed the most liberal abortion laws in the country and the most liberal divorce laws in the country as governor (of California), and then ran as the pro-life, social-conservative presidential candidate," Norquist said.
**
Giuliani's sharp-edge personality is another wild card. He sometimes rubs people, especially journalists, the wrong way.
On the other hand, his toughness might appeal to like-minded conservatives.
"A nice person couldn't have done what Giuliani did in New York," Mead said. "You needed a pit bull. Giuliani is a pit bull."
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
Yeah, show me ONE pubbie who has won the nomination by dissing pro-lifers over the last 26 years.
Another reasonable, victory-minded conservative heard from!
Amen, brother!!!
Well, this is what one Rudy booster thinks of the pro-life movement.
Exactly. We need someone who can preserve the coalition between fiscal and social conservatives.
Giuliani is not that person, and, as long as we're going to throw hyperbole around...I consider anyone pushing his candidacy a saboteur trying to harm the GOP.
No candidate is perfect.
However, if Rudy wants to win the nomination and the election, he'll need the support of the pro-life base. Arrogant jerks like you are quite counterproductive towards that end.
I AM pro-life, you idiot. And I'd venture to say I've done more financially and politically for the pro-life movement than you have.
Rudy is going to make peace with reasonable Right to Lifers. He is already trying, with his appointment of Nussle. This will only continue.
Of course, in any movement there are the 1%-ers who cannot be appeased under any circumstances.
Those people need to be kicked to the curb. Are you one of them?
Yes, Rudy will have a problem with the conservative base. However, he can handle that if he gives conservatives three good reasons to stand up and cheer. He can pick the issues, and there are plenty of good ones to pick from.
Amen, brother!
War on Terror.
Judicial nominees (his model is Scalia).
Budgetary issues/taxes.
Fiscal conservatism.
The list goes on and on...
You people. You people.
In other words, the kind of people who brave the cold each year for a trip to DC for the March for Life. The same kind of people who show up every year to work phone banks and drive voters to the polls. And who donate whatever hard cash they can for their candidate. Motivated people.
In other words, the core of the GOP GOTV efforts in 2000 and 2004. The same people who were less-than motivated this time around because the GOP started acting like they weren't important any longer. And the kind of folks who will tell arrogant folks like you to go pound sand when Rudy asks for their help if he wins the nomination.
Ah, but you bash them anyway. Isn't that special.
Please, spare me the dramatics.
You want to be wooed. I get it.
You want everyone to tell you how important you are, how "no one can win the nomination without you."
You want people to crawl over broken glass to humbly ask your pardon for their every imperfection.
Well here's the straight dope, friend: You represent a small percentage within a small percentage.
Most Right to Lifers, most conservatives will back Rudy if he's the nominee. Some--like yourself--will place ritual purity above results.
Thankfully, there aren't very many of you, and you really don't matter in the big scheme of things.
Which nowadays means people who have the temerity to ask that the GOP nominee remotely resemble a conservative.
And no, I'm not a single-issue voter. Rudy gives me a lot of reasons to be quite worried - first regarding his stances on gun control and amnesty, and second regarding the kind of Clintonista scandal red meat he's gonna serve them to chew on and spit back at him.
If anything, Romney has a much better chance of actually winning the election - for precisely those reasons. I would still vote for both in the general election if they were the nominees, but I really hope it doesn't come to that, because IMO I would be casting a losing vote like I cast for Bob Dull in 1996.
Clown, I am not bashing pro-lifers.
I am bashing you.
Sure, show me the internals that back up self-identified conservatives supporting Rudy in large percentages.
So, one liberal is outpacing the other two liberals. But, no matter which one wins we still get a liberal as President.
Well, if you're willing to vote for Rudy in the general, then none of my animosity is really directed at you.
It is reserved for people who say they will literally stay home or vote 3rd party rather than suffer the indignity of voting for Guiliani or McCain.
I really have no use for those people. And I'm tired of everyone in our party kow-towing to them.
For pointing out what should be friggin' obvious politically? Heck, Rudy couldn't even withstand a fight against the Hildabeast the last go-round. And you think he's the guy to do such now?
If Guiliani or McCain is the nominee, it really won't matter anyway. Neither has a chance in hell of standing up to the Clinton slime machine. Romney at least seems to have a clean past. McCain has the Keating 5 and Guiliani - well, can you imagine the DNC ads with Bernie Kerik in a starring role?
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