The Unlikely Frontrunner - Is the GOP in for a Rudy awakening?

The Weekly Standard ^ | 04/09/2007 | Andrew Ferguson

[Bean Counter]

Rudy Awakening??

I'm thinking Fred October, my friends...

[basil]

I'm all for Rudy running for the nomination. I just hope he doesn't get it.

[neverdem]

I'm thinking Fred October, my friends...

He's currently my preference earlier than October when funds are still available and the time to organize is earlier this time. Too many primaries will be done by mid-February, IIRC.

But you couldn't have read that article this quickly with comprehension unless you're the greatest speed reader in history. It's worth the read.

[Man50D]

Giuliani is routinely described, in the pundit's shorthand, as a moderate

A Moderate-One who attempts to be appealing to everyone and so doing sacrifices whatever core principles he/she once had and in the end has no principles. The writer's contention "He's that rare politician who's most comfortable staking out positions at the further points of the ideological spectrum, swinging from one end to the other depending on the issue at hand" confirms the definition of a so called Moderate.

it is just as likely that Giuliani's social liberalism will offend conservatives and his fiscal conservatism will offend liberals.

This is a false premise. A Social liberal is in favor of programs that require much money and spending to fund those programs. Fiscal conservatives are anathema to spending large amounts of money. The two ideologies are mutually exclusive of each other.

[Cicero]

I'd be happier if, instead of constantly bashing Rudy, people who don't like him would throw their support behind other possible candidates, Fred Thompson and Duncan Hunter in particular.

It would be more useful to try to build these guys up, and then see how it plays out.

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Interesting take on Rudy's candidacy.

[narses]

I’m pro-choice. I’m pro-gay rights, Giuliani said. He was then asked whether he supports a ban on what critics call partial-birth abortions. “No, I have not supported that, and I don’t see my position on that changing,” he responded. Source: CNN.com, “Inside Politics” Dec 2, 1999 http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Rudy_Giuliani_Abortion.htm

ANDERSON COOPER 360 DEGREES (November 14, 2006)

RUDY GIULIANI (R), FORMER MAYOR OF NEW YORK CITY: I'm pro- choice. I'm pro-gay rights.

KING: Giuliani supports a woman's right to an abortion, and back in 1999, he opposed a federal ban on late-term abortions.

GIULIANI: No, I have not supported that, and I don't see my position on that changing.

KING: Immigration could be another presidential landmine. Back in 1996, Mayor Giuliani went to federal court to challenge new federal laws requiring the city to inform the federal government about illegal immigrants.

JEFFREY: He took the side of illegal immigrants in New York City against the Republican Congress.

KING: Giuliani opposes same-sex marriage but as mayor, he supported civil unions and extending health and other benefits to gay couples. He also supported the assault weapons ban and other gun control measures opposed by the National Rifle Association.

GIULIANI: I'm in favor of gun control. I'm pro-choice.

Republican Big-Wigs Support Pro-Abortion Event in NY

Pro-abortion Governor George Pataki and New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who also supports unrestricted abortion, are co-chairs of the 2000 Choice Award Presentation to be held on May 30 at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City. The event is sponsored by the Republican Pro-Choice Coalition, a group that is campaigning for the removal of the pro-life plank from the Republican National Platform.


http://www.nationalreview.com/murdock/murdock200503010743.asp

[billorites]

As a Republican presidential nominee, I'm not the biggest Giuliani fan.

I'm not particularly afraid of him either.

I don't think he's going to grab my guns, make me marry my plumber Biff, abort babies retroactively or anything like that.

I don't buy into everything he advocates, but I don't think he's crazy, irresponsible or unreasonable.

Plus, in a padded push-up bra, he's hot.

Seriously, this man in drag is better looking than Anna Nicole was in the past umpteen years. Like, who wouldn't hit it?

OK, so perhaps I'm confused a little about my sexuality.

and maybe my politics are "evolving"....

[padre35]

The article really summed up Guiliani's problems with well with us.

1. He is in favor not Jim crow gun laws, but of rolling back hard won freedoms.

2. He is pro gay marriage

3. He will no doubt allow homsexuals to openly serve in the military, in a time of war, we cannot afford that social tinkering.

Man, I like Rudy, but I really do not want him on the Republican ticket in 08 a vote for Rudy would be like abandoning principles, and there is enough of that already.

[Maelstorm]

What troubles me about Rudy is that he as well as Bloomberg have crossed the line not of just a hands off attitude towards abortion and gay rights but to out right promotion of those agendas.

[Mojave]

A Social liberal is in favor of programs that require much money and spending to fund those programs.

Notice the skyrocketing spending through 2001, when Rudy termed out?

[gpapa]

Interesting take by Ferguson saying in effect that Rudy is a left winger and a right winger simulaneously, and not a "moderate." Based on the issues RG is to the left of Senator Ben Nelson, a democrat from Nebraska.

[neverdem]

It would be more useful to try to build these guys up, and then see how it plays out.

I have posted many of Fred's commentaries, his Paul Harvey stints, from NRO. If I find an interesting article, I usually post them whether they are pro or anti. It's nice to know what the enemy thinks. I confess that I didn't post one against Fred because he doesn't have executive experience.

[lentulusgracchus]

[Article] "Many Republicans will see these 'firsts' as a great liberation for their party, which by nominating a candidate at odds with religious conservatives will have at last freed itself from its disastrous bluenosery."

This kind of sentiment appears to be a fixed feature of the Weekly Standard -- they consistently bash social conservatives and Southerners. One of their editors, Christopher Caldwell, argued this line in a series of articles and debates all through 1998 to 2000. These guys really want conservatives to "go away" and just vote GOP on election day.

Might as well start calling them "the Weekly Democrat" -- they sure sound like it in the quote above, and in their sympathy for the "well-tanned" California GOP'er who referred with such evident distaste to the Republican Party's "base".

"WANTED -- stokers and greasers to serve in the steam yacht SS Republican. Hands will not be allowed on deck, however, as part of their conditions of employment."

[lentulusgracchus]

I confess that I didn't post one against Fred [Thompson] because he doesn't have executive experience.

Well, then add this reluctant demurrer.

One of the vital characteristics of any GOP nominee in 2008 will have to be his ability to handle the Clintons and their lie machine. George H. W. Bush couldn't handle them, Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich couldn't handle them -- a lot of good Republicans, including all the Republican impeachment managers whom Clinton and his kitchen cabinet of political gutter-rats targeted for extermination afterward. The Hutchinsons, Bill McCollum, the excellent Bob Barr -- they all got taken down in an alley.

Fred Thompson's a good man, but he couldn't handle the Clinton lie machine and Slick's attack dog, Richard Ben Veniste, during the Chinagate hearings. He was chairman of the committee, but he somehow couldn't get the witnesses he needed or the material that was out there, to begin the long, arduous job of turning over all the rocks that Clinton had his slugs and termites under. Fred just wasn't up to handling Slick politically, or his strawmen and substitutes (he uses a lot of them). That has to count as a big negative.

[Kevmo]

Many Republicans will see these "firsts" as a great liberation for their party, which by nominating a candidate at odds with religious conservatives will have at last freed itself from its disastrous bluenosery.
***Interesting you should zero in on that sentence, because that's exactly the same one I chose to lead with. I wonder where they get the idea that this coalition with socons has been a "disastrous bluenosery"? It's obvious to many socons that the party turning its back on its most activist wing in favor of becoming democrat lite is the beginning of the end, similar to what happened to the Whigs.

[longtermmemmory]

My new favorite is the picture of Rudy Guiliani in front of the Gun Control Inc. podium.

[neverdem]

Any idea of what happened to sinkspur whose last post was 08/31/2006.

[Nonstatist]

I'm thinking Fred October,

Try thinking Fred Never-ember. The guy just doesent have it in his gut to fight for this, IMO. A shame..