[JamesP81]

Rudy Giuliani - the thrice-married presidential candidate who staunchly supported abortion rights, gun control and gay rights as the Big Apple's mayor - is receiving a surprising level of support from social and religious conservatives.

This is a hard pill for me to swallow because I am a conservative Christian, but the truth is the truth. RG is getting support from many social conservatives because, frankly, many social conservatives are woefully ignorant of politics and American government in general, both theory and practice. Too many in the church have swallowed the media pushed, culturally correct pill that government can solve our problems. God in heaven help us.

[ilgipper]

Too many in the church have swallowed the media pushed, culturally correct pill that government can solve our problems. God in heaven help us.

I think it is more about what issues people are most concerned with. Rudy ranks high on the issue of leadership in the WOT, as well as leadership in running a government. Fact is, Washington is a giant bureaucracy, much like NYC. If there is an unmanageable bureaucracy that needs to be tamed, Rudy is the man to do it. He has a record with many accomplishments believed to be unobtainable before Rudy. I am either a Fred or Rudy guy for 2008, with consideration for Mitt if he proves himself in the early primaries as a viable candidate in the general.

[mnehring]

Willful ignorance is one, but there is a big following for Rudy under the label of the desire to win, believing that Rudy is the only one who stands a chance against Hilldog. Another reason is people view the WOT as the #1 concern and believe Rudy to the the leader whose experience in this trumps his negatives.

Sadly, you can’t use Free Republic’s opinion as a gage of what Conservatives believe. Some of the strongest, most religious Conservatives I know support Rudy for the reasons I listed above. They believe the final race is already decided and they just want to be on the winning side. Or, as my dad puts it, it is better to have incremental victories than devastating defeats.

[Alberta's Child]

Rudy Giuliani is “leading” the GOP pack with 25%-35% of the voters. Anyone who can barely muster the support of one-third of his own party’s voters is going to have his @ss handed to him in the general election.

[mimaw]

I think it has far more to do with the fact that in all the polls Rudy beats the dems. Anyone with a brain knows he’s far less dangerous than a liberal dem.

[dooltotheend]

You can’t be conservative and be ignorent. It’s an oxymoron. Implicit in conservatism is understanding the Constitution and educating yourself about the issues of the day. Also, it is impossible to be conservative economically, but liberal on social issues and still be conservative—or vice versa. It’s no different than the lame “I support the troops, but not war” Demrat mantra. Conservatism is not schizophrenic.