I watched Rudy Giuliani's interview last night. I have to say as a liberal I'd considering voting for him based on his pragmatic views on immigration (guest worker), in favor of civil unions, stem cell research, and local/sate control of handgun regulation, and abortion rights. I'd probably vote for him over a socially conservative democrat (though I'd need to hear more about his foreign policy/military view and plans about health care and such). I would be shocked if Giuliani could win the Rep nomination. I'd love to see it though.
How Giuliani Will Help Elect the Democrat Rudy Giuliani's presidential candidacy is the best thing that will happen for the Democratic candidates this year. He's going to lose. Yes, I know he's the Republican frontrunner in some polls, but Howard Dean was the frontrunner for a while in the last contested presidential primary season. On his way to losing, Giuliani is going to divert a lot of money away from the inevitable Republican nominee, John McCain. Giuliani's losing campaign is also going to pull a lot of pro-choice, independent voters away from McCain in the general election. McCain has had very strong appeal among those voters for years because, among other things, they don't quite realize how hard-core his anti-abortion position actually is. When Republican primary voters discover how liberal Giuliani has been on social issues--along with how many wives he's had and how many gay men he has lived with while waiting for a divorce to come through--they are going to abandon him faster than Democratic voters fled from Howard Dean. But the only way they are going to "discover" Giuliani's record on social issues is for John McCain to tell them about it. McCain's campaign has the most vicious attackers in politics today, including Bush campaign graduates and the Swift Boat attack team. They are going to make Giuliani look very bad to conservative voters, but, in the process, they are going to make McCain look bad to moderates he will need in the general election. The attacks on Giuliani are also going to make the Democratic nominee look better. Only the New York press (which includes the national press) thinks being The Mayor is adequate preparation for being president. McCain's attacks on Giuliani will include double underlining Giuliani's lack of experience in federal government. Giuliani's experience with the biggest items in the federal budget--Social Security, Medicare, and Defense--is nonexistent. The McCain campaign will do the Democrats the favor of showing that the current Republican frontrunner has less relevant governing experience than Senators Obama and Clinton, who will owe McCain a thank-you note. No mayor of New York has been promoted by voters to higher office in my lifetime. Big city mayors don't play well with voters outside their city anymore. Just ask John Lindsay, Ed Koch, Kevin White, Tom Bradley, Dick Riordon. Rudy Giuliani is no exception. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-odonnell/how-giuliani-will-help-el_b_40558.html
I know it's early but it looks more and more like the republicans really can't come up with a candidate that could win in the general election. I mean even Rush is shaking his head at the possible candidates. McCain? Rudy? Those are the front runners?
Personally, I strongly disagree. I've been saying for years that a Giuliani/McCain ticket is exactly what we could use next in the presidency. Hilary is far too liberal, and Obama is much less experienced than either of these two. I'll put my money one the repubs ticket over the dems ticket if this is the best they can put up. Time obviously will tell.
Actually Hillary's been much more moderate as a Senator than her reputation would indicate. Plus she's won over conservative Upstate voters. Hillary is far more formidable in a general election than people realize. I haven't decided who to support but I wouldn't count Hillary out on the presumption that she is too liberal or come off as too liberal. My guess is she will run to the right of several of the Dem candidates.
You're more correct than you know. Hillary will the least liberal candidate for the Dem nod, bar none. It won't even be close. She's running right of everyone.
He has more experience. Barack is young and has only been around for 3-4 years. Barack would be a far more formidable opponent in 2012 or 2016, just as McCain will be in '08.
No I didn't. But his youth and lack of national recognization would make him fairly easy to deafeat, if he won the nomination. Again, I see this election as good for him in name recognition, but I think he will be stronger in coming elections. Don't get me wrong, run him all you want. As I stated, I feel that either Giuliani or McCain would defeat Barack or Hilary. We'll see.
Yes, she's been ver right center since she became a Senator. hell Clinton wasn't even that liberal, he became President because he used triangulation agaionst the liberlas in his own party. I don't know why anyone thought HIllary would be otherwise.
http://www.economist.com/debate/democracyinamerica/2007/02/baseless_claims.cfm [rquoter]ANDREW SULLIVAN cites the conventional wisdom on Rudy Giuliani today: the Republican party is now virtually the political wing of organised "Christianism", and the religious base will savage the secular, gay-friendly and abortion-rights-supporting New Yorker. We share Mr Sullivan's concerns about the religious shift of the party, and its potential veto over Republican nominees. But perhaps someone who knows polls can explain why Mr Giuliani and John McCain continue to dominate every poll of Republicans? The Fox, Time, CNN, ABC/Washington Post, Gallup and Zogby polls all say the exact same thing: these two, both famous for not exactly cuddling up to the evangelical base, are leagues ahead of the likes of Sam Brownback and Mitt Romney in the minds of Republican voters. Assorted hypotheses, not all of which are mutually exclusive: - It's early in the cycle. The religious base hasn't shown its awesome power yet - McCain is only in there because he's learned to fool evangelicals by holding his breath and kissing them like he means it - McCain is only there because he's learned to fool journalists and pundits into thinking he's really a centrist maverick, while the base knows he's really one of them - Giuliani is only there because he left office right after his finest hour, September 11th, and has had five years to do little but bask in glory and rake in money - The conventional wisdom of pundits is wrong and actual Republican voters are right: the evangelicals are not all-mighty, and the party is ready for a change Did we miss anything? [/rquoter] perhaps batman's nightmare will come true: the republican party is not in thrall to evangelicals.
Perhaps its because the average person hasn't heard of Mitt Romney or Sam Brownback? The national names always dominate the polls over a year before any primaries. Same reason Hillary, John Edwards, and Obama dominate the Dem polls.
via tpmcafe -- Tom DeLay about the GOP Presidential field. DeLay has very harsh words for Rudy Giuliani and John McCain in particular. On Rudy: "I can't vote for somebody that's for abortion. I never have, and I never will." On whether Rudy opposes gay marriage: "Now he does. He didn't just a year ago." On McCain: "I don't think he'll get very far, because he does not reflect the vast majority of the party ... on many issues." <object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/nuK-hVVEINQ"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/nuK-hVVEINQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>
says the vid is no longer available... thanks for the summary. delay epitomizes the current state of the majority of the republican voting base... either that or i fall in a category like one of the few basso posted. unfortunately for this party, and the country as a whole, enough corruption hasn't seen daylight yet. until a political upheaval occurs within the republican party and ALL of the fakers are thrown out, we will all continue to suffer. candidates will continue to give lip service to gay/abortion/immigration rights like mccain does, and rudy is doing now. i would like to go on the record, and say the democrat win in 06 was good thing. i don't agree with most of the policy ideas of the democrats, but atleast they were able to throw some of the stale politicians out. too bad kinky couldn't do the same here... and it's unfortunate that newt couldn't get the term limits in place.
I'm throwing in my vote with Condi. I love Condi. But if she doesn't run, I'll stick with Lieberman (wait, he's NOT a Republican? You mean even after... JEEZ! What is WITH this guy?). If HE doesn't run, I guess Rudy (sigh).
