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The question today is whether I have seriously underestimated Rudy Giuliani's chances of winning the 2008 Republican presidential nomination. There is little need to go through the logic that was employed to relegate Giuliani's campaign to the dustbin of history. But it took into account his stands on social and cultural issues such as abortion, guns, and gay rights, his checkered personal life, and his promotion of Bernard Kerik, first to be New York City's police commissioner and later as a prospective secretary of Homeland Security. Then there was the question of whether a former big-city, Northeastern mayor is still...

Last week, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Senator John McCain both gained support in the race for the GOP nomination. This week, the top four contenders all lost ground. But, through it all, Giuliani remains on top with a double digit lead.The latest Rasmussen Reports national poll shows Giuliani with 28%, thirteen points more than McCain’s total of 15%. Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson remains undeclared but in third place with 12% support. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney remains slightly behind Thompson at 10%. The stability in the GOP competition stands in stark contrast to...

As the violence in Iraq continues despite greater troop presence, Democratic strategists see Republican candidates facing an increasingly daunting task of keeping the White House after 2008. Most vulnerable, insiders say, is John McCain, the staunchest supporter of the war among GOP candidates. Once seen as the inevitable GOP nominee, his campaign is faltering badly. While plenty believe he'll turn his luck around--his campaign staff is stocked with former Bush campaign people--others see it as nearly finished. "The general feeling around town is that McCain is done," says a strategist with a top Democratic consulting firm. "And if any Republican...

April 23, 2007 Giuliani: Put More States In Play, Or Else We'll Use We've heard Giuliani advisers make this argument, but we've never heard it from the candidate himself. Interviewed this a.m. on the Imus substitute on MSNBC, Giuliani said "From a political point of view, I probably have the best chance of putting states like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Washington, Oregon, California in play. And as a Republicans, if we don't put those states in play next time ... we may see a Democratic president." Pennsylvania and New Jersey are realistic. California, Oregon and Washington are second-tier....

Judging by the cranky feedback, supporters of Rudy Giuliani's bid for the Republican presidential nomination did not like my column last week. To sum up, I argued that Giuliani was pro-abortion and therefore did not deserve support from conservatives. Rudy backers offered three comebacks. Some simply chose to ignore his shameful pro-abortion record. Others proclaimed that abortion was just one issue and Rudy is a conservative on most others, especially fiscal issues. Finally, another group decided that his policy positions really don't matter because Rudy is the only guy who can beat Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton. Since we dealt with...

With former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani consistently leading early polls for the Republican presidential nomination, pundits have spilled an ocean of ink concerning his electability. Having recently sat down with the man, let me tell you why I consider Giuliani a candidate wholly appropriate for our times. As someone who spends a lot of time thinking and writing about globalization and security, I was brought in recently by the Giuliani campaign to discuss these topics with the mayor. This is standard practice as presidential candidates gear up, and Giuliani’s camp is the fourth I’ve visited in the last...

April 21, 2007 -- A group of Israelis has launched a grass-roots effort to get people living in the Jewish state who are eligible to vote in the United States to line up behind Rudy Giuliani, it was reported yesterday. The group, Giuliani Supporters in Israel, was launched by Mordechai Twersky, a onetime candidate for state Assembly in The Bronx in the early 1990s, according the Jerusalem Post. Twersky has established a Web site, giulianisupportersinisrael.org, with background information including Giuliani's famed eviction of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from a Lincoln Center concert in 1995. "I did this as a private...

With former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani consistently leading early polls for the Republican presidential nomination, pundits have spilled an ocean of ink concerning his electability. Having recently sat down with the man, let me tell you why I consider Giuliani a candidate wholly appropriate for our times. As someone who spends a lot of time thinking and writing about globalization and security, I was brought in recently by the Giuliani campaign to discuss these topics with the mayor. This is standard practice as presidential candidates gear up, and Giuliani's camp is the fourth I've visited in the last...

In light of what he said today, is there any doubt this man is unfit for office?

***... Mr. Giuliani maintains a big lead over his Republican rivals in the polls yet has all the wrong policy positions on social issues such as abortion and homosexual rights considered key to cultivating Christian conservatives. However, some evangelicals and pro-life Catholics seem willing to overlook his faults -- including his two divorces -- in the belief that he is the only Republican actually running who can defeat the Democratic nominee in 2008. Still, Mr. Giuliani and conservative Christians "probably have irreconcilable differences on life and family and that kind of thing," said Mr. Falwell, adding, "I couldn't support him...

....Rudy Giuliani will speak tomorrow at the university founded by televangelist Pat Robertson, a major appearance for the former mayor...who holds liberal social views....Giuliani made his sharpest case for moving beyond social issues this weekend in Iowa, telling The Des Moines Register, "Our party is going to grow, and we are going to win in 2008 if we are a party characterized by what we're for, not if we're a party that's known for what we're against." Asked about abortion, he said, "Our party has to get beyond issues like that." Giuliani upset conservatives - and surprised supporters - by...

April 10, 2007: "Fear of Rudy" at the New York Times It's not quite as pronounced as Erica Jong's "Fear of Flying" but the "Fear of Rudy" is nonetheless palpable beneath the NYT's routine thumbsucker "Some in G.O.P. Express Worry Over '08 Hopes" by Adam Nagourney and John M. Broder. (subtext: I hope they lose, I hope they lose, Please, God, I hope they lose!) This is the kind of article the Times prints as serious journalistic analysis when even the slightest perusal demonstrates the usual tawdry mix of bias and wish fulfillment. To make their point they have...

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Rudolph Giuliani launched into a California campaign speech recently with an opening line the crowd surely didn't expect -- his husky-voiced impersonation of Don Corleone in "The Godfather." "Thank youse all very much for invitin' me here tuh-day, to this meeting of the families from different parts'a California," Giuliani said, recycling his old New York gag to laughter and scattered applause. Then this week, Giuliani used the reference again, invoking the mob's code of honor to explain why reporters should lay off his wife. "I am a candidate. She's a civilian, to use the old Mafia distinction,"...

(Angus Reid Global Monitor) - Rudy Giuliani remains the top contender in the race for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination in the United States, according to a poll by RT Strategies for the Cook Political Report. 34 per cent of respondents would vote for the former New York City mayor in a 2008 primary.Arizona senator John McCain is second with 17 per cent, followed by actor and former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson with 10 per cent, former House of Representatives speaker Newt Gingrich with nine per cent, and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney with six per cent. Support is lower...

New York, NY (LifeNews.com) -- Saying that Rudy Giuliani's position in favor of states forcing taxpayers to fund abortions could be too much for pro-life Republican primary supporters to support, CBS News is coming under fire for calling the position "moderate." That's despite polls showing a large majority of Americans oppose tax-funded abortions. In an article on Giuliani's position, CBS News used the headline: "Is Rudy Too Moderate?" Ken Shepherd, the managing editor for NewsBusters and a former analyst at the Media Research Center, says CBS News is wrong to label Giuliani's pro-abortion views as "moderate." "The belief that abortion...

May I suggest to my prolife friends that they are looking up a blind alley when they argue over the real inner views of the candidates with respect to abortion? The single most important question pro-life Republicans need to ask themselves is this: What kind of judges and justices would the various candidates nominate, given the likelihood that they will face a Democratic majority Senate? To my mind, this is less a question about abortion than it is a question about congressional relations. Let's stipulate that John McCain is a sincere, principled opponent of abortion. Do we think he's likely...

Has it crossed your mind that this may be an extremely rough primary in 2008? I asked him. "It has, and it will be," Giuliani replied. But he also said he did not think the attacks would come directly from other Republican presidential candidates. "I think more of this comes from the atmosphere in the blogging atmosphere, in the instant news atmosphere, and the minute analysis atmosphere," he said. Is Rudy blaming bloggers for his recent bad publicity? Rudy's recent problems have arisen from interviews he granted or speeches he gave. The most damning information has come from YouTube videos,...

Next to that clown Harry Potter, the most anticipated book this summer here in New York City is reporter Wayne Barrett's blockbuster biography of Rudolph Giuliani, the Big Apple's badass mayor. Giuliani, as you might have heard, was recently running for U.S. Senate against Hillary Clinton, but withdrew from that race following a prostate cancer diagnosis and some serious girl troubles. But TSG thinks poor Rudy was also dreading the July 11 release of Barrett's detailed examination of the controversial Republican. While Barrett's book--"Rudy!: An Investigative Biography of Rudolph Giuliani"--is a reporting tour de force filled with revelations about Giuliani,...

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani ventured to conservative South Carolina yesterday hoping to talk about terrorism and the economy, but instead got hit at every stop with another topic - abortion. A day after the former mayor said he supports public funding of abortion - sparking a firestorm among conservatives - local media here forced him to elaborate on the issue at events intended to underscore new endorsements. And although Giuliani, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, did not waiver from his central belief that abortion is a woman's right, he responded with some of his most...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Rudy Giuliani's message to social conservatives: If you don't like my views, don't vote for me.