With Giuliani’s decision to partially embrace his pro-choice past in order to move past the issue the navel gazing at Giuliani’s semi pro-choice position has started.
His campaign at some level has apparently decided that if Giuliani comes out in May as a pro-choice Republican with a few flips to the right, he’ll avoid the question in August. It’s not a bad idea for the campaign, they can move in front of the issue, take the hit in the polls early on in the primary season and actually rebuild his campaign with solid name identification but without the baggage of being the front runner. The problem for Giuliani is that non-orthodoxy on choice is a fairly serious issue for Republicans. In as much as the Republican party created so many sub issues inside of the pro-choice deabte that Giuliani cannot escape alienating part of the Republican base, a portion of it’s elected officials and come across as sincere. Abortion becomes a a giant tattoo for Giulaini and it’ll be impossible to avoid the issue into the future.
Giuliani attempted to get in front of the issue with a speech in Texas that included his abortion stance. The campaign uploaded the video to youtube. On Laura Ingrihm’s show he was sandbagged on the issue. On Fox News this morning, it constituted nearly 40% of the interview. It missed a tons of issues in the crevasses of the anti-choice movement. What would politicians who signed cards saying they would never vote for a pro-choice politician say if Giuliani is the candidate? Can the Republican party mobilize anti-choice voters when the head of the ticket is pro-choice? The questions are interesting and they will never go away precisely because the Republican party has made abotion such a grab all, overtly political issue. I have no doubt those are the questions that Giuliani will be asked at gatherings in Iowa, and New Hampshire for the next nine months because it’s like a very visible tattoo.
I’m least fascinated by the Giuliani candiday but he presents some interesting dilemma’s for the Republican’s in ‘08 that illustrate the social cleavages inside the party. What will moderate republican voters think, or are they already lost because of the war?
3 Responses to “Giuliani : The ‘does that hurt’ candidate”
Something to say?
you want to know how social conservatives will line up behind rudy? nominate hillary clinton and you’ll see…
Left by matt
May 14, 2007 at 1:51pm