Posted on 02/20/2007 6:02:13 AM PST by areafiftyone
Daniel Weintraub, the respected Sacramento Bee political columnist, says it is looking more and more as if former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani can win the GOP presidential nomination. Writes Weintraub:
Only a few months ago, conventional wisdom throughout much of the political world was that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani might make a competitive Republican candidate for president in a general election, but he could never win his party's nomination because conservative primary voters would reject him.
Now, suddenly, that wisdom seems to have shifted, and as Giuliani trouped through California last week, he was wowing conservatives with his charisma, his gift for sounding spontaneous on the stump and his call for bold national leadership.
"Rudy" - as he is known everywhere - has already been accepted as one of three top-tier Republican candidates, along with Arizona Sen. John McCain and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. With California and several other large industrial states set to move their primaries up to early February, Giuliani might be more formidable than ever.
"All three candidates have challenges when it comes to proving themselves to conservatives," said Jon Fleischman, a party activist whose Flashreport.org Web site is considered by insiders to be the voice of conservative Republicans in the state. "Giuliani has just as good a shot as the other two of trying to articulate to conservatives why, as they compromise to pick a candidate, it should be him."
Giuliani just might be the perfect Republican candidate for California, a state that prefers Republicans who are not-so-conservative on certain social issues.
I'm afraid that they will be.
Please! There was a huge difference in Howard Dean and Rudy. If you cannot see the difference then you have your blinders on.
Howard Dean phonied up how much support and how much money was flowing in -- he was a snake oil sales getting money from individuals that couldn't think and had never been involved in politics before.
Rudy has lined up the big donors from the Republican Party along with some of the best consultants to run his campaign. You have compared apples and oranges.
How do I know? I had to follow that stupid Dean blog for the someone in the campaign to report the daily happenings. Dean's campaign was a joke from day one -- the powers at be would never have let him win with or without the scream. He had no substance and the people running his campaign were a joke to think he could win with not raising as much as he said he was raising.
It shows a lack of political savvy to compare the two IMO.
Gee, in his NYC mayoral campaign strategy, he did not want to be associated with Reagan Republicans in any way:
"The Giuliani campaign should emphasize its candidate's independence from traditional national Republican policies. Especially useful in this strategy is Giuliani's role in overturning a Reagan administration attempt to throw disabled people off of Social Security rolls, his prosecution of Republican elected officials -- especially his authorization for calling his boss, Attorney General Edwin Meese III, a sleaze, and his un-Republican views on many social issues of concern to New Yorkers, like abortion, gun control and bias protection for homosexuals."
Without the social conservative the Republican party will lose. It always has.
I have not made up my mind yet, but Rudy is no Dean. You don't have to like his views but he is heads and shoulders above Mr. YEARRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHH!
You are right he is no Dean. Dean was an honest liberal, I did not agree with his views but he was honest about them. Rino Rudy is tring to hoodwink conseravatives into voting for him. He is more of a John kerry.
I agree 100%! I don't send my Congressman and two Senators to DC to deal with social issues -- they belong in my home, my church, my community and on rare occasions in my state.
Believe we will see some type of a split when we lose the social conservatives that jumped on the Republican bandwagon expecting Republicans to cater to their every need of legislating morality to suit their demands. That has not happened and now they are in a snit for the most part. We lost big in 2006 so we have to reach out to people that are concerned where this Nation is headed on the WOT and other important national issues.
No candidate that can win is going to be able to appease some of these voters. We have to build new coalitions and bring back in some of the voters the unappeaseables have driven away with their my way or no way approach that does not work.
Been a Conservative my whole adult life but I have learned over the past month that my Conservatism mirrors the Contract with America not what some of these people on here claim Conservtives have to be.
Read the thread on the platform and had my laugh. The days of the platform planks coming down to fist fights are over. My Uncle used to sit on the platform committee in the good old days when they would actually come to blows about the platform. It has been tea and crumpets for years and after all the Conventions at all levels, the platform is put back in the file cabinet until the next Convention. Each group gets their piece of the pie now and can go away claiming victory.
Back in the smoked filled backroom days, the candidates were searching for delegates up until the final talley was announced. Many of our candidates including Ronald Reagan in 1980 went to the Convention not sure of the final tally. Those days are gone and so are most of the caucus systems in states to be replaced by statewide primaries.
It is a new era in politics and political campaigns. Most voters live by the soundbite and why someone like Rudy is surging ahead. Takes million(s) to run a nationwide campaign, a huge staff of the best in the business consultants, and a demeanor that attracts voters. Vast majority of Americans don't care about social issues like they do on here. They care about being safe when they go shopping, go to sporting events, and other entertainment venues along with having the money to afford to do things. If that wasn't the case, you would have millions of people marching in the pro-life march in D.C. or on the flip side in the anti-war marches by the left. You don't have these huge numbers compared to the population of this Nation.
My children have been taught what is right and wrong from an early age and are conservative -- note that I said conservative not a labeled conservative.
I watched the H&C interview and I did not get that impression sorry. I thought he was quite straight forward with his answers, showed great candor, didn't deflect the question asked and seemed pretty comfortable with himself. I guess you saw something different.
I am still in the watching phase however and have not made up my mind. Eventually I will vote for the REP nominee, maybe it will be Hunter :)
Wow - what a great post - I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed reading your thoughts.
Thanks PhiKapMom - you're on my Christmas card list.
I can't see either McCain or Romney winning in California. Actually, with one exception, I can't see ANY Republican presidential candidate winning in California again in our lifetimes.
And that exception is Rudy.
I'm not a good wordsmith, but I see in Rudy the charisma, the confidence that Reagan offered to Americans. I don't mean only self-confidence, but a confidence in others and in the future of the country. Perhaps some of this was borne withing by literally having to run for his life as the towers fell nearby, and finding the motivation within to rebuild in the wake of the ruins.
You'll take note that above, I mentioned _nothing_ about his "social attitudes" that bring out the anti-Rudy robots whenever a "Rudy thread" gets posted here.
Reagan was NOT elected because of his social leanings. Quite the contrary, he won because of his optimism, his faith in Americans, and his ability to "reach" ordinary folk with his charisma. Americans saw in Reagan the "leadership" that Carter dismally failed to offer. And they are seeing the same in Rudy.
If Rudy can take California, he wins. It's that simple.
- John
Thanks! Look forward to receiving one!
Rudy can definitely win California, and thus would win the Presidency with a thumping Reaganesque majority of the electoral votes.
Obviously none of us are crazy about Rudy's domestic policies, but they are better than any conceivable Democrat other than perhaps Joe Lieberman, and there is no way we can risk having the likes of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama near the levers of power in this country. And foreign policy matters a heck of a lot more than domestic stuff right now.
-ccm
Amazing, ain't it, Hydroshock? All these "broken-glass Republicans" pushing a candidate who favors abortion, gun control and amnesty . . .
Back when FR was a conservative site--rather than an organ of the "New Republican" party (see the Whigs)--they would have been *zotted*.
Instead these neo-liberals post one thread after another pimping their candidate, daring to compare him to Reagan (see the title of this thread) calling conservatives "unappeasables", and even trolls . . .
It's like DU in here recently. Amazing.
I did, and he did not sell me. He strikes me as a liberal tryign to be a conservative to get votes. I have looked at his record that is enough to get me to never vote for him.
Having done business in NYC for decades, I assure you Rudy walks the walk. Despite vicious opposition he made life better, safer, and happier for ALL it's citizens.
guess you would prefer a website where only 'certain' opinions were allowed?
Hear, Hear. The partisans for Pence and Hunter and the other guys on the fringe of the hard Right are living in a dream world. They could no sooner be elected than Kucinich or Jesse Jackson could win from the Left. We need to do the best we can with a flawed but decent moderate, and right now that looks like Giuliani to me.
-ccm
It is amazing. The self-delusion is breathtaking.
You are so right -- we have to put our best candidate that can win forward and I agree it looks to be Rudy Giuliani. This election is way too important to take a chance on an unknown IMO.
Rubbish. I've been here since 1999 and lurked for a while before that.
In those days, George W. Bush was seen as an untrustworthy Rockefeller Republican while the hardest-right wackos of FR were pushing Gary Bauer, Pat Buchanan, Howard Phillips, Alan Keyes, Steve Forbes, etc. They lived in a dream world then, and are in a dream world now.
Nobody got zotted for supporting the "moderate" George W. Bush. Hell, there were a few people on here for Lieberman, and none of them got zotted that I can recall.
-ccm
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