Posted on 04/06/2007 5:43:31 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani often enjoys poll scores above all presidential rivals from both sides of the political aisle. He inarguably projects the kind of appeal normally foreign to most candidates trying to convince voters that citizens matter more than a party’s agenda.
However, that likely centrist advantage in the general election can be kryptonite in the primaries because centrism has so often been antithetical to the ideologues selecting each party’s nominee. But things are changing and Giuliani’s tough stances in defense of moderate positions are continuously embraced by the respondents of all surveys. Republicans have begun demonstrating more acceptance of moderates than have the Democrats, and this is a dramatic shift.
While having parity with the loons of the Right in the 90’s, those on the Left have since morphed into greater episodes of unhinged behavior. Yes, the right-wingers have Ann Coulter. However, the leftovers have Rosie O’Donnell, and she has grown to equal six snapping Coulters.
Let us be candid in the way we measure their respective fringe-like behavior. Coulter wrongfully resorts to name-calling while O’Donnell likens Iran’s taking of 15 British sailor and marine hostages to a cabal arranged by the United States government. Apparently the Baker-Hamilton Commission was right all along when recommending diplomacy with Iraq’s surrounding hostile regimes possessing a vested interest in our demise. We need only talk with the Iranians and look how quickly they’ll kidnap on our behalf! By Rosie’s measure however, we’ll now appear to have lost our influence because President Mahmoud Ahmedinijad let them go – U.S. cabal neutralized.
Back in our own galaxy, hard right elephants are uncomfortable with Giuliani’s progressiveness despite respecting his globally witnessed 9/11 heroism – but they’re not as disquieted as the liberals would prefer. Hard-Left donkeys are paranoid that if he does win the primaries, his centrism will then be unleashed upon its most target rich audience, the general election voters.
This is reminiscent of Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman, who lost the state’s Democratic primary in ’06 only to win the statewide election thereafter as an independent. The militants rejected him while mainstreamers decisively returned him to power.
Why are the rigid partisans on both sides so frightened? Because even the wing-nuts have learned over the years that a preponderance of polling data illustrates that most Americans are socially moderate and fiscally conservative while being strong on national defense.
A more strangling frustration however will tighten around the Democrats because while the hierarchies of both camps are unnerved by centrists, a Giuliani victory would become a Bill Clinton moment for the GOP. Just as Bill extricated control of the Democratic Party from the far-Left, Rudy would take from the far-Right that similar influence. Republicans would accomplish in ‘08 the broader appeal once enjoyed by Democrats in the ‘90s. This of course was before they succumbed to the authoritarian collectivism of Moveon.org and the pro-Tiananmen Square massacre mentality of International ANSWER (Act Now To Stop War and End Racism).
Mr. Giuliani will nonetheless encounter battles with his own party’s old guard, but it’s a healthy and necessary process. Social conservatives will never come around to his perspective on gay rights and abortion, but will continue admiring his law enforcement prowess, contempt for a legislative judiciary, and zealous advocacy for free trade. He’s also the only candidate who has spoken extensively on the dangers of crossing the separation of powers between the branches, and how Constitutional law outranks legislative law each and every time - regardless of whether or not it’s liked by Congress, the Supreme Court or the Executive Branch.
Yet these are cautionary challenges juxtaposed to the well-grounded nervousness felt by Democrats over Giuliani’s prowess. In a column entitled, “Democrats Should Go After Giuliani – NOW,” popular left-wing syndicated columnist Roland Martin recommends going after the pre- 9/11 Rudy:
He was accused of being grossly insensitive to the family of a black man shot numerous times by the police and his rudeness was the talk of City Hall. (Creators Syndicate, February 16, 2007.)
However, Martin later admits in that column:
There is no candidate that strikes fear in the hearts of Democrats more than Giuliani. He has mass appeal, can raise money, has a huge name I.D. and is strong on defense. He talks tough and walks even tougher.
A month later, a quasi-progressive magazine published an opinion piece by Robert Polner entitled, “What an anti-Giuliani add should say,” wherein he supports the need to emphasize the benefits of disparaging the Mayor’s 9/11 credentials just as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth did in the 2004 election against Senator John Kerry’s military service. He argues that the Democrats should use the International Association of Fire Fighters’ drafted letter of rebuke:
It blasted Giuliani for his "disgraceful" order of November 2001 that forced hundreds of New York firefighters to stop searching ground zero for the remains of their fallen brethren. (Salon Magazine, March 17, 2007)
Somehow, this scheduling dispute pales when compared to the veteran-turned-activist’s own comments before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee when he characterized the confessed actions of a minority of soldiers as if they were the atrocities of most:
They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do. They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, tape wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the country side of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country. (Government transcript of John Kerry’s testimony, April 22, 1971, courtesy of C-SPAN)
However, the country will soon see the benefits of Giuliani’s pre-9/11 record. During his tenure, crime dropped, employment rose, the economy strengthened, drug use plummeted, and Time Square stopped being the toilet everyone wanted to flush.
He accomplished what 40 years worth of predecessors could not – he allowed my city to radiate again with pride.
You missed the point - it was his arrogance in ignoring the law that I wanted you to notice.
My brother would vote Republican, but he thinks the party’s been taken over by religious extremists who would push more and more of their views on others. The democrats have very successfully demonized reps in this way.
Then, why are you supporting a candidate that 1) increased spending in his last five years as mayor to the point of giving New York City a deficit higher than any other but the Federal deficit and 2) a man that wants to use tax dollars to fund abortion?
I do not think one single tax dollar should be spent on abortion. Ever.
I could live with Rudy as president. Not ideal, true, but acceptable.
And to those libertines, a 'religious extremist' is anyone who prevents the country from worshipping sex, drugs, rock and roll, and abortion.
Rudy and Clinton and Putin all share thuggery in common, if you can live with that you embrace thugs.
Rudy disagrees with you.
I agree. But the realities are that Dobson and others get media exposure for saying the republican party must try to legislate their religious beliefs. Or else.
Rudy is liberal on these.
I am conservative on other issues, taxes/spending, immigration, etc.
Rudy is liberal on these also.
And I don’t believe, as you apparently do, that child porn is what the framers had in mind when they drafted the First Amendment.
When was it stopped?
Well, I happen to think that you do not know what you are talking about, to the point of incoherence. Thus any further discussion on this topic with you would be a complete waste of my time. Best of luck.
Well, I happen to think that you do not know what you are talking about, to the point of incoherence. Thus any further discussion on this topic with you would be a complete waste of my time. Best of luck.
LOL, sorry that facts are not your friend. I pray your eyes open before election day.
“Messenger”? You really have to consult Webster. A messenger only delivers the message without biases, and not vouch for the message's accuracy, credibility or veracity. These anti-Rudy attacks are filled with personal hatred and character assassination. So the "I'm only a messenger" defense is a joke. So tell us something positive about your candidate?
If I were to vote for a pro-infanticide leader it would make me morally guilty of conspiring to murder 50,000,000 fellow Americans, in my mind, and I presume Gods mind as well.
If you are talking about voting for a abortionist then we are on the same page.
The Giulianites are conservatives on foreign policy, and support this woefully misdirected War on Terror. They think a mayor who’s liberal on everything will suddenly find his voice on foreign policy. They promise us conservative judges from a liberal. Pure fantasy. Absolute balderdash.
Rudy is Mario Cuomo with a lisp. He liked Cuomo too, by the way.
361 posted on 04/06/2007 2:59:21 PM EDT by Luke21
I AGREE WITH EVERYTHING YOU SAID except the misguided war comment.
We would have won this war a long time ago if not for the fact that most of the world(including about 30% of the US public) is openly rooting for the terrorists.
The one mistake we did make was not knowing that most of the world was with the terrorists. Who would have thunk it?
I haven’t heard back from you.
Are you really claiming that Conservatives should protect CHILD PORNOGRAPHERS?
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