Why Rudy?

Pittsburgh Tribune Review ^ | March 10, 2007 | Salena Zito

[veronica]

For the moment, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani sits on double-digit leads over the rest of the Republican presidential-hopeful pack in several national polls.

Why?

"It appears to me that Rudy is going aggressively after the conservative vote," says Pennsylvania Republican and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum. "He has not ceded that ground to anybody."

Santorum, known nationally for his social conservatism, says Giuliani does a good job of reminding people how he governed as a conservative on crime, welfare and taxes in New York City.

Santorum also believes Giuliani has scored points on social issues with his comments about judges and Supreme Court justices.

"Rudy understands that, on those issues, the courts are where conservatives have been losing the battle," he says. "If he is going to be appointing judges in the Scalia-Thomas (mold), then he is sending a very positive message to conservatives that he understands the importance of having the Constitution interpreted for what it says and not for what people want it to be."

[GovernmentIsTheProblem]

"If I remember correctly, Rudy campaigned for Santorum this last election cycle as well."

Yes, between that and Santorum supporting the Spectre, look at how well that worked for him.

[PzLdr]

Probably because a lot of us on Free Republic are hard core Conservatives - and Rudy ain't even close to being one.

[dmw]

It's interesting how the MSM is becoming a respectable source here on FR--among the Rudybots that is. They even like to use them to validate Rudy's poll numbers. It's getting weirder and weirder around here lately.

[mrsmith]

Including you I've still got enough fingers on one hand to count all the sensible Freepers (IMHO) supporting Rudy at this point.

Those big poll numbers are great but they can change and the media have plenty of time and material to work with to change them.


I find him a very weak choice for the usual reasons about his long and hard-held social views...

But also for his lack of the experiences with military matters and legislatures and to a lesser extent foreign affairs that come from being a Governor.
Is this the time to turn over the WOT to a president with less military experience than Bill Clinton?
Sure he talks tough but he has the same expertise as Woodrow Wilson- none.

Ah well, there's still a primary to run.

[veronica]

I have posted my reasons for supporting Rudy in detail, on other threads. I am not going over it again and again.

I do wish to post articles on Rudy without the usual suspects/spammers showing up with their foolishness, but I guess that is asking too much. :) And what do you call an endless campaign of hate, if not a jihad???

Yes, in response to hundreds of insulting posts about Rudy, I have mentioned that Duncan Hunter looks like an unmade bed, that he needs to buy a few well-fitting suits, and eat fewer carbs. Not ready for prime time, in other words.

[dmw]

"No. I DON'T go on threads about McCain and act like spoiled child, ranting and raving, comparing him to Hitler, etc. I DON'T fling mud obsessively at Duncan Hunter, who has NO chance of getting the nod. I post pro-Rudy articles, and state my reasons for supporting him, even as the anti-Rudy gang continues it's jihad against him. I have not engaged in that sort of behavior against candidates I don't support."

http://www.sound-effect.com/sounds1/human/applause/crowdapplause.wav

[Dave S]

Santorum stype Republicanism loses Pennsylvania by more than 10 points. Rudy currently leads Hillary and Obama by more than eleven points in PA. So you're telling us to run a nobody Pork King because he can win in San Diego? Duncan Who?

[Corin Stormhands]

Including you I've still got enough fingers on one hand to count all the sensible Freepers (IMHO) supporting Rudy at this point.

Really? You have over 1,300 fingers on one hand?

That's how many votes Rudy got in the Hunter-Giuliani FR poll.

And there's well over 200 on the continually growing Rudy ping list.

[dmw]

"'scuse me a minute. I have to sit down.
The spin on that post was...incredible."


I can understand that. When I talk to my *liberal* friends they tell me I have that same effect on them. Guess the truth can do that. I hope you're alright now.

[Dave S]

Apparently to some, free speech does not emcompass allowing a debate which includes the GOP (and overall) frontrunner.

Didnt realize that spamming is now redefined as "debate". Duncan Who? Oh you mean the pork king who never found a pork bill he didnt love?

[mkjessup]

President GW Bush is a GREAT man and GREAT President!!!! Great Presidents have the ability to communicate and to inspire America. That is how Ronald Reagan transformed an America curled up in the fetal position after Jimmy Carter into to the future "Hyper-power" that America became and was up until two years or three years ago.

Bush has failed miserably as a communicator.

Lincoln's list of military disasters, one on the heels of the other, (First Bull Run, The Seven Days, Second Bull Run, Chancellorsville, Fredericksburg) literally fill entire history books. Yet, Lincoln had the leadership qualities to communicate to the nation why final victory must be achieved.

From Katrina to Iraq, Bush has allowed the Democrat Copperheads to falsely communicate to the nation that he has utterly failed and Bush has done very little to defend himself.

I live in an extremely liberal town on the Left Coast and, after Katrina, a liberal coworker started going off on how Bush had totally failed during Katrina. I calmly explained to her about storm surge phenomenon, about New Orleans being under sea level, about the levees being rated to withstand a Category 3 storm, about Katrina being predicted as a Category 5 storm, about the Southern Louisiana Evacuation Plan and how that plan was totally ignored by the Democrat Mayor of New Orleans and the Democrat Governor of Louisiana leaving tens of thousands of low income people stranded in a death trap as hundreds of buses stayed parked in neat rows instead of being used as the Evacuation Plan stated they should be used.

Three days later, my liberal coworker stated she had Googled the issue on the Internet, thanked me for the information, stated that I had opened up her eyes to the truth of the matter and stated that what those Democrats had dome was inexcusable. .

Communicating the truth about Katrina to the American public about Katrina was not my job.

It was the President's job.

However, George W. Bush has yet to do that communicating and it has being his failure to do so in regards to Katrina and in regards to the strategic disaster that an Iraq bug-out will bring that has now given us a Democrat Congress and a demoralized Home Front that may very well lose America a strategecally vital war that, by any historical standard, has already been won.

You may be "the President's best friend" but my Number One loyalty is not to Bush or to any President. My Number One loyalty is to America and Bush's pathetic job in using the Bully Pulpit to inspire and lead America as Lincoln and Reagan did has cost America dearly

Wise words that should be shouted from the rooftop, or at least in the direction of Karl Rove's fax machine.

Well said FRiend, and as someone who voted for GWB twice, my loyalty is not to any one man who may achieve the Office of President, it is to the Constitution of the United States, and our Republic (what's left of it).

What I see happening here on FR (which IS a microcosm of the political universe) is that there is too much emphasis on the personalities of various candidates, too much fawning and accolades about what a 'wonderful inspiring LEADER' so-and-so is, how they 'rose to the occasion' and 'inspired' everybody, blah-blah-blah, and what people do not seem to remember is that it is that very kind of idol worship and self-generated fixation which can (and has throughout history) result in the establishment of a truly fascist leader, one who has no need of the 'law', because they are a law unto themselves, the adulation of the masses empowers them to act on their own authority, and to dispense with pesky legalities and just "make the trains run on time" like il Duce did in Italy.

I happen to support Duncan Hunter for President. I support him not because he gives a real barn burner of a speech, not because he's got a wardrobe right out of GQ, not because he is so polished that he just gleams like a diamond by the standards of our pop culture and empty-headed media, I support him because I believe that of all the candidates, he is the one who will uphold our Constitution, defend our Nation, and will not compromise with what the Law requires of his Office.

He might not get the nomination, and if he does, he might not win the Presidency. But to compromise my own principles and values on the altar of expediency, just for the sake of the political equivalent of the Raiders' Al Davis philosophy "just win baby!", is nothing but a hollow 'victory' and one which will lead to our own continued national destruction.

I once heard a preacher talk about 'how' we are saved by Christ, and he said it was 'The Blood, The Blood, and nothing BUT The Blood' of Jesus upon the Cross, and there is a political parallel which we ought to be applying in this electoral cycle which is 'It is the Constitution, the Constitution, and nothing BUT the Constitution, and the candidate we support should be the one who is most likely to uphold it, not someone the MSM annoints as the 'flavor of the week-month-year'.

[GovernmentIsTheProblem]

" I do wish to post articles on Rudy without the usual suspects/spammers showing up with their foolishness, but I guess that is asking too much. :) And what do you call an endless campaign of hate, if not a jihad???"

Dems call Conservatives "the Taleban wing" of the Republican party and you are playing off that. I tend towards little-l libertarianism but comparing Christian (of which I am not one) Social Conservatives (again, I'm not one) to the Taleban is disgusting beyond words.

This is a thread about a candidate during the campaign season. I would like to hear why the positions for example that match between Clinton and Benito Giuliani are acceptable to you.

Seriesly, what better way is there to discuss the merits or lack thereof about candidates on a thread about one? What do you want, some Rudy cheerleader threads, some Hunter cheerleader threads, and no debate about the relative merits?


"Yes, in response to hundreds of insulting posts about Rudy, I have mentioned that Duncan Hunter looks like an unmade bed, that he needs to buy a few well-fitting suits, and eat fewer carbs. Not ready for prime time, in other words."

In other words they are not micromanaged by image consultants etc. You prefer a manicured, handled, scripted candidate to one whom you know exactly what they think?

This isn't a ^%$@^$#@ beauty contest!

[Dave S]

It's fascinating to watch and shows me just how far out of the political mainstream these freepers are

Kind of like the "Netroots" crowd in the Dem Party that went after Lieberman. :-)

[dmw]

BTTT

Great post!

[presently no screen name]

(in case you missed it earlier in the thread):

Earlier in WHAT thread? The first of 1,000? I bypass SPAM since I'm NOT INTO JUNK!.

Hey PNSN, wise up for once:

Wise UP? Doesn't take too much wisdom seeing hillary supporters.

[Corin Stormhands]

Guess the truth can do that.

Well, try it some time and let us know how it works out for you and your cadre of *liberal* *friends*.

[mkjessup]

One scribble deserves another. Take your monitor into your bathroom so you can read it in the mirror, ok?

[veronica]

That worked out well. :))

[Corin Stormhands]

Take your monitor into your bathroom so you can read it in the mirror, ok?

While I understand the similarities, I really won't be thinking of you in the bathroom.

[musicman]

IMHO, the BEST post I've read on FR since all this crap throwing started between the Rudy and Hunter folks!!!!

"If many feel this way, then I would recommend the Conservatives form their own party. The RATS did, they just never changed their name from the Democrat to Social Democrat party."

"The way to win elections now is to collaborate with the moderates which is now about 40% of the populace? Neither party can win without them. Perot went after them and Clinton won because it was done the opposite way."

"Form a party, have a platform and send the message to the moderates. If we believe that our message is the right one, then they will come on board."

"We are no longer Republicans and there are no longer Democrats. Only Conservatives, Liberals and Moderates."