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.
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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."
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"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.
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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 ...
I disagree.
Anyone we nominate will have a good chance of beating Hillary. She has so many built-in negatives, we can count on at least 46-47% of the vote just by showing up.
Rudy isn't perfect. He has some issues. But he's shown himself to be incredibly tough and resilient throughout his career.
I believe enough voters would be attracted to his toughness--and (gasp) his moderate views--to overcome the negatives in his past.
But this is why we have primaries. Frankly, I'd vote for a blind pig with an R next to it's name if that's what it took to beat Hillary.
You have a twisted view of what you view as liberal. In that respect, then it is fair to say that Reagan was Liberal if we use your standard model.
Hillary doesn't need to win a majority. IMO her plan is to repeat the winning strategy for 1992 - win a plurality.
I can just about guarantee that if Bush signs amnesty and either Rudy or McCain is the nominee, there WILL be a split in the GOP, and not over abortion, although a pro-life nominee COULD help prevent a split. McCain is allied with Ted Kennedy on amnesty. Rudy wants amnesty and also fought to keep NYC as a sanctuary city. You think that is a path to holding the base? Or splitting it for the benefit of Her Thighness?
Like I said, show me internals regarding conservative support for Rudy within the polling.
Immigration politics have similarly harmed New York. Former mayor Rudolph Giuliani sued all the way up to the Supreme Court to defend the citys sanctuary policy against a 1996 federal law decreeing that cities could not prohibit their employees from cooperating with the INS. Oh yeah? said Giuliani; just watch me. The INS, he claimed, with what turned out to be grotesque irony, only aims to terrorize people. Though he lost in court, he remained defiant to the end. On September 5, 2001, his handpicked charter-revision committee ruled that New York could still require that its employees keep immigration information confidential to preserve trust between immigrants and government. Six days later, several visa-overstayers participated in the most devastating attack on the city and the country in history.
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So how, then, can Rudy reconcile his law-and-order reputation with the fact that he refused to allow city employees to interact with the INS regarding immigration status - including CRIMINALS that could have been deported.
What a smarmy little puke. Watching these Ghoulie Annie supporters is like watching a group of retards trying to out do each other on the topic of how tough superman is.
Rudy will this and Rudy will that. What Rudy and his alienating Ghoulie Annies will do is send the Republican party to the biggest defeat in political history and probably break it up for at least 8 years.
Will do, thanks. I prefer to examine the internals. One can reach all kinds of conclusions at a high level with enough effort.
Hate to break the news, but a sizeable number of Giuliani supporters here have already stated that they will not vote for McCain if he is the nominee.
Don't believe me? Ask 'em.
Notice that three times on this thread I asked the Unappeasables if they thought Alan Keyes was an acceptable presidential candidate in 2000? And if they thought he had any chance of winning in 2000?
Not one answer!!!
The Unappeasables love candidates like Keyes that the public hates. No doubt our Unappeasables think Keyes is a GREAT Conservative.
Gays don't have to talk about gay rights for some folks on FR to hate them. Just the fact that exist and breathe air is bad.
I can tell you there are many gay conservatives who do not believe in special rights for gays and believee that marriage is between a man and a woman.
But they are hated for existing.
Are you saying 143 isn't true?
As president, Reagan signed the Ozone Depleting Chemical ban passed by the UN. If Bush did something like that, FR would go into collective convulsions.
I will vote for whoever wins the Republican nomination ... just to keep Hillary, Obama or any Democrat out of office.
Another reason to love the guy.
MORE than offset...The "my-way-or-the-highway" crowd have yet to demonstrate they represent a significant proportion of people within the electorate, other than on FreeRepublic.
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