Posted on 10/15/2007 6:13:51 PM PDT by Eric Blair 2084
The most surprising recent national polling result was an answer given by Republicans who attend church weekly when Gallup asked their presidential preference. A plurality chose Rudy Giuliani, a Catholic who in 1999 said: "I don't attend regularly, but I attend occasionally." Their choice raises deep concern among prominent conservative Republicans who feel it would be a serious mistake for leaders of the religious right to scorn the former mayor of New York.
This is threatening to become a major problem because, contrary to the conventional wisdom, Giuliani has stubbornly kept first place in national surveys of all Republican voters. His elevated status cannot be written off as merely superior name identification. He no longer seems uncomfortable as a Republican and clearly dominated the most recent presidential debate last week in Dearborn, Mich. The real possibility that Giuliani might actually be the Republican nominee led a group of religious conservatives, meeting in Salt Lake City Sept. 29 under the leadership of James C. Dobson of Focus on the Family, to consider a third-party alternative.
But the situation is not a simple confrontation between the Christian right and Giuliani. The Gallup data suggests that Dobson and the Salt Lake City group may be out of touch with rank-and-file churchgoers. A well-known social conservative, who asked that his name not be used, is disturbed by Dobson saying he could not vote for Giuliani under any conditions. Apart from being the lesser of two evils against Sen. Hillary Clinton, Giuliani seems to be the positive choice of millions of religious Americans.
In an aggregation of 1,690 interviews with Republicans and Republican-leaning independents in four Gallup surveys during August and September, Giuliani led with 27 percent (to Fred Thompson's 24 percent) among those who said they attended church once a week.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Actually, the date suggests that those polled are out of touch with Biblical teaching and moral values.
Novak works for the DNC. Every move the pseudoconservative
makes is to help the Democrats.
His daughter was Kerry’s speechwriter.
IT is for the murder of unborn babies!
IT is a big gun control nut!
IT covered for the invaders in ITS city!
IT surrounds ITself with queers and thugs!
Why does IT have an R by ITS name instead of a D?
I haven't watched much of the debates but I found Rudy more articulate and impressive than the rest of them.
But it's early yet and the field needs to be narrowed down before I start taking the polls very seriously.
Guess you want Pat Robertson to run again?
Not at all. I want a conservative to run, not a liberal Giuliani.
Guys like Dobson and Bauer are completely linguini spined. They are already hedging because the Giuliani momentum is has clearly moved from the dismissals by pundits as a possibility in late 2006/early 2007, to the appearance of inevitability of Giuliani winning the nomination.
Novak is a Democrat now? Sheesh.
Rudy respects those who believe in religion, and considers them an important part of society.
He does not much believe in religion himself, but that sort of thing is not very compatible with being a politician.
Huckabee is an example of a politician who actually does believe in religion. He is ready to embrace illegal immigrants as his brothers, even though most of the electorate is willing to forget about their duties towards their fellow man and kick them back over the Rio Grande.
Why does Rush like Robert Novak? He had a big interview with him a few months ago in the Limbaugh Letter.
The landscape has changed. The influence of Dobson, Land, Mohler as well as the recently departed Adrian Rogers is evaporating. Their power to elect a Reagan or Bush could no longer be in place. They may well rattle their sabers and have no major effect. Rudy could be elected without their support and that would expose the men behind the curtain of the Great and Powerful Christian Oz.
They are playing with fire that may well backflash on them.
Baloney. Novak is a real conservative.
Actually the data suggests that Dobson et al are being taken serously by fewer and fewer Christians, many who believe as they do, but are tired of the often childish antics.
Huckabee is a bigger liberal than Rudy. His only two conservative positions are he is pro life and pro 2A.
Other than that, he is a Big Government loving, tax and spend, nanny state, social engineering, open borders liberal....who believes in Jesus.
Robert Novak has always been a Democrat and still remains one. Apparently you know very little about his long career.
Well there are conservatives who support Giuliani and not only appreciate his conservative credentials but believe he can actually win.
Sean Hannity is one of them.
Rudy is not a liberal in the sense of being a softie or a nice guy. If he decided illegal aliens were undesirable, he would have the police beat them with nightsticks and toss them in the clink. Same thing with abortionists.
Novak certainly has an agenda. No question about it.
Actually, many “SoCons” wailed and gnashed their teeth about Bush before he became the nominee, as well.
Fortunately, most of them were grounded in reality once he got the nomination.
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.