Conservative Mag: Rudy Has "No Chance" Of Winning GOP Nomination
Here's some more for you on Rudy Giuliani's preparations to sell himself to social and religious conservatives, which we wrote about below. Terence Jeffrey, the editor of the conservative weekly Human Events, has dug up some old quotes from Rudy on abortion and same-sex marriage, and in a piece called "Forget It, Rudy," Jeffrey concludes that Rudy doesn't have prayer, as it were, of surviving the GOP primary:
He has no chance of winning the Republican nomination, and, even if he did, he would not make a good president. His views on core cultural issues are too radical.Giuliani is not just pro-abortion, he is pro-partial-birth abortion. He has not flinched from defending the legality of the gruesome practice that the late Democratic Sen. Patrick Moynihan of New York described “as close to infanticide.”
“I am pro-choice. I’m pro-gay rights,” Giuliani said in 1999, when he was contemplating a Senate campaign. When a reporter asked if he at least favored a ban on partial-birth abortion, Giuliani said, “No, I have not supported that, and I don’t see my position on that changing.”
Giuliani’s pro-gay rights position is so extreme, he advocated stripping away the special legal status of traditional marriage. In 1998, he pushed a municipal ordinance that wiped out all distinctions between married and unmarried couples in New York City law, regardless of their gender. The late Cardinal John O’Connor gave a sermon from the pulpit of Saint Patrick Cathedral condemning Giuliani’s proposal. “It is imperative, in my judgment,” said the Cardinal, “that no law be passed contrary to natural moral law and Western tradition by virtually legislating that marriage does not matter.”
Giuliani did not back down. “What it really is doing is preventing discrimination against people who have different sexual orientations, or make different preferences in which they want to lead their lives,” he told the New York Times in response to O’Connor’s sermon.
Giuliani understood the link between allowing people to urinate on the streets with impunity and New York City’s overall decline. Outside New York, on the Republican campaign trail, he is sure to meet many voters who understand that his positions on abortion and marriage do to our national culture exactly what the street people and pub crawlers did to New York.
As noted below, Giuliani is telling his big-bucks fundraisers that his positions on these issues are not as black and white as they've been made out to be. But those above quotes are nothing if not black and white, so it will be interesting indeed to see how he goes about persuading people to see shades of gray in them.
If Rudy actually ran , presumably one of his opponents would reprint Jimmy Breslin's Newsday column describing how America's Mayor ( BTW I still admire how Guiliani handled himself on 9/11- just not how he's merchandised that performance ever since) not only used a cop as chauffeur for his (then) wife but also used two more of them to chauffeur both of his (then) mistresses ,plus assigning an NYC police traffic controller to ensure they didn't overlap one another or Donna on their , shall we say , "visits" to Gracie Mansion .
I realize that the moral values supporters are able to demonstrate surprising tolerance when the pecadillos are the pecadillos of a , say, Henry Hyde rather than a W.Clinton.
But two mistress/chauffeurs plus a controller seems a bit much. At least it did to the NYC cops. Which is why they tipped off Breslin .
November 18, 2006 9:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, they're probably right that he can't win, but as a Vice Presidential candidate he could put in play states the Dems would otherwise have locked-up - not least, of course, New York.
His problem is that I can't see the Republicans putting up with two "mavericks" on the ticket - whether that's McCain/Giuliani (because that leaves the social conservatives adrift) or Romney/Giuliani (because that gives them two North-Easterners when the key region is probably going to be the west/mid west - especially if Evan Bayh or Bill Richardson is on the Dem ticket).
November 18, 2006 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Rudy has zero chance of winning the GOP nomination or getting picked for VP.
He is pro choice, pro gay rights, pro gun control. He has a closet full of skeletons.
Not gonna happen.
November 18, 2006 4:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Before we all jump on the "Rudy has no chance" bandwagon, let's not lose sight of the fact that Human Events has been wrong before. In fact, they are wrong on almost everything they write about. This is not to say that other indicators are not pointing in the same direction and even a broken clock is right twice a day, but...
November 18, 2006 8:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
I actually think just about all of this comes down to what happens with the Religious Conservative vote in the next two years, and not what the pundits say. Bush has lost considerable grip that would have gotten a lot done for the Theo-Cons, and it won't be returning. They know they hold a lot of weight in the Republican Party, but that doesn't mean that the voting commoners don't decide to just stay home. This is especially true of the primaries.
If the Republicans get nervous enough that they're not going to get the backing of the Religious Right, it might cause them to go for the middle. In fact, they won the first presidential election by playing to the middle, so they might just do that anyway.
Still, I agree with garyadams: Giuliani/McCain seems a bit far-fetched. Perhaps Mitt Romney/Giuliani or Romney/McCain, but not the two mavericks together. But do not discount the power that Giuliani has in northern states and with the 9/11 star power. He's a great addition to any ticket for the Republicans and they'd be fools not to at least consider him for the top.
Watching from just above the water line. . . .
DragonFlyEye.Net
November 19, 2006 1:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
I would request that we stop wasting each other's time posting more articles about Giuliani. It was always obvious that he had ZERO chance. Now conservatives are saying exactly that.
All you have to do is remember South Carolina is (still I believe) on the early primary calendar, after New Hampshire and then a bunch of southern states. Remember that McCain did really well in New Hampshire, then ran straight into a buzz-saw of lies and swift-boating from the S.C. machine. They even tried to insinuate that he had a black daughter by his mistress. The campaign was straight out of the 19th century.
The whole Giuliani campaign will be D.O.A. in S.C. They won't even have to swift-boat him. They can just tell the truth this time and he'll be totally destroyed.
What I can't understand is what on earth Giuliani is doing running in the first place. Even if he were a died-in-the-wool conservative, NO New Yorker is going to win support in the south and the Republican party is a southern regional party.
A pro-abortion republican is a walking contradiction in terms. There is no room in the modern Republican party for anyone who isn't a mouth-breathing anti-abortionist fanatic.
He might as well stop now and save himself the time and money. Period.
November 19, 2006 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I would request that we stop wasting each other's time posting more articles about Giuliani."
Agree.
Any discussion about Guiliani as Presidential or VP candidate is a waste of time.
Same thing with Condi Rice. Not gonna happen.
Same thing with Newt. Not gonna happen.
Mitt Romney looks like he would be a strong candidate on paper until you remember the power evangelicals have in GOP primaries. They consider Mormons as non-Christian.
I still say McCain is the most likely GOP candidate. He has Establishment support, he has Media Elite support, he is sucking up to the religious right and lining up their support, he is going to have tons of money.
November 19, 2006 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Told ya...
November 20, 2006 10:24 AM | Reply | Permalink
No, he can't. New York wouldn't vote for a GOP ticket even with Giuliani on it.
November 20, 2006 10:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think Newt could mount a viable candidacy, and I think Mitt Romney will mount a viable candidacy. The evangelicals will follow the signals from their leaders during the GOP primary, and if their leaders decide that Romney will do what they want and they still harbor doubts about McCain, they will go with Romney, his Mormonism notwithstanding.
November 20, 2006 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink