Posted on 05/04/2007 4:05:09 AM PDT by Liz
.......front-runner Rudy Giuliani may not be the front-runner much longer.........for the most part, his debate performance was lousy. Worse still for him, he was a disaster talking about the very issue he needs to speak most artfully about. That issue, of course, is abortion. Chris Matthews tossed Rudy and the other candidates a softball when he asked what his response would be if he were told that Roe vs. Wade - had been overturned.......All Rudy had to say was that he would believe a constitutional travesty had been overturned and therefore that it would be good day for America. This was a no-brainer. Instead, he offered an answer both intellectually indefensible and politically dense. "It would be OK to repeal it," Rudy said, then quickly added, "It would be OK also if a strict constructionist viewed it as precedent" - the only candidate to say it would be OK. Meaning that he wouldn't mind if Roe were upheld just so long as a conservative justice upheld it. This makes no sense. You either believe a Supreme Court decision should be overturned or you don't. You can't have it both ways. Rudy needs to win the Republican primary, in which the most passionate bloc of voters is pro-life...... His answer last night was insulting to them Rudy did himself harm last night.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
We gotta get that on a tee shirt.
I agree. That said, I think the candidates' performance last night is likely to be indicative of how they will handle themselves throughout the campaign. Clearly Romney outshined the competition, and I can't see that changing no matter how much preparation the rest do. He's simply quicker on his feet than the rest - a difficult skill to "learn". McCain just makes people feel uncomfortable, and that never has and never will change. And I don't see Rudy ever comparing favorably to Mitt in any debate format.
I also think that if Gilmore can hang around long enough to get into debates where there are only 4 or 5 candidates, he has the potential to be a factor. His performance last night was very good, but it was difficult for him to separate from the pack due to the format itself. I'd say that about Huckabee as well, although to a lesser extent than Gilmore.
Finally, I thought Hunter had a great night. But I just think he has too far to climb, and will run out of steam and/or funding before becoming a serious contender.
He's far more of an idealogue than you think, and he exposes his ideology when he makes comments like this. He's a big-government, nanny-state globalist from New York City who supported Giuliani not for pragmatic reasons, but because Giuliani fits his definition of an ideal "conservative."
The good news is that the big-government globalists in the Rupert Murdoch media empire are apparently going to ditch Rudy Giuliani as their standard-bearer. The bad news is that they are just as likely to turn their support to Hillary Clinton as anyone else.
I was very surprised by Rudy's response to the initial abortion question. I would've expected that he'd have that issue nailed, since it's his biggest weakness with primary voters. Yet when it came time to answer his delivery was very awkward.
Granted this is reading tea leaves, but one wonders whether this is indicative of a lack of preparation in all areas of the campaign. Perhaps Rudy has bought into this notion that every remark can be off the cuff; yet "off the cuff" remarks work best when a great deal of time has been spent preparing and conversing on the subject.
Huckabee really did himself good by me with that one, since I've been saying the same thing since before the invasion of Iraq. He basically tossed the whole "neo-conservative" wing of the Bush administration overboard with that statement.
Gilmore might be setting himself up as a perfect VP candidate for 2008. One of the demographic/political trends over the last couple of decades is that Virginia has become a more heavily-contested state as more and more leftists have fled there from Maryland and the Northeast, and having this guy on the ticket might go a long way toward keeping it in the (R) column.
They would just yell at us that we must want Hillary to win.
I was thinking the same thing. Especially if Romney ends up winning the nomination. At this point Gilmore should be rooting against Fred Thompson, because if Fred gets it I see him picking a VP from the NE or midwest to add some balance.
Fred’ll likely pick someone from the midwest(i.e. Watts or Pawlenty) Why pick Mitt when he can’t bring you any NE states? If Fred can win a few states in the midwest and hold the entire South, he’s the next POTUS.
Great minds think alike. I predicted Pawlenty the other day. ;-)
He looked awkward b/c he was trying to figure out how he was going to get himself out of the fix he was in.
The more likely scenario is that Rooty went into the debate with Plan A----to show he was the man to ditch those pesky social conservatives off the Repub party lifeboat, and transform the party into a pro-abortion stronghold.
However, as each candidate forcefully stated his pro-life position, Rooty knew he was a goner. Plan A was not going to work. An astute observer could almost see his brain short-circuiting, thinking "now wadda I do."
Ironic that Rooty was faced with the "Right to Choose:" he could choose to betray his NARAL and PP pals and advance himself, or he could choose to advance Plan A and sink his primary chances.
Yep. "Which one of these is not like the other one?"
Right now, I'm really hoping Thompson declares, although so far NO poll has him beating either Hillary or Obama---but again, that might change if he actually becomes a real candidate.
I hope and pray these useless troublemaking skanks are stuck in the muck where they belong............although one can envision their fellow turds dragging out the resuscitation equipment, as we type.
Isn’t it interesting that Poddie, of all people, claims Gov Huckabee is now the guy to watch? Sounds like a shakedown might be in the works, eh?
BRAVO! All real conservatives can hope for is the issue be, correctly and constitutionally, returned to the states. Holding out for a judicial solution on a national level is just too, too RAT’ish.
Actually, I think this shows he simply can't handle situations when he isn't in full control and doesn't have a friendly audience. Kinda like Hillary.
Seriously, he's had two months to put together something resembling a coherent position on abortion - and instead just keeps sinking deeper into the tarpit of his own making.
He did stick it in the wringer - maybe he could be the democratic candidate - or run as an independent.
Greatest. Graphic. Ever.
And there you have it. Rudy's idea of a "constructionist" is one who values precedent over original intent.
His problem is that "constructionism" MEANS according to original intent in how the law was constructed. Rudy has twisted it into its opposite in order to preserve and build upon the historic and constitutionally unsupportable gains of the left via the courts.
Anybody dumb enough to have believed this weasely thug should have their noses rubbed in this quote good and hard. It's a priceless mistake.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.