For those who still aren't ready to support the Theodore Roosevelt of the 21st Century, we point to the compendium of Rudy Giuliani's achievements assembled by City Journal's Steven Malanga. Yes, we can live with McCain. Yes, Romney may be ready. Yes, Richardson is an acceptable Democrat, which is probably to say a Democrat never to be nominated by his party.
But what Rudy has done outshines every other list of political achievements in his generation. Read and learn.
8 comments:
Rudy is pro-choice.
And pro-gay rights, and divorced multiple times. We know, we know. It's politics, not sainthood.
And please remind us again what the pro-life presidencies of Reagan, Bush 41 and Bush 43 accomplished? Answer: the appointment of a minority of pro-life Supreme Court Justices, some of whom didn't stay that way.
But Rudy said that he'd appoint people like the impeccable John Roberts. So there.
Litmus-test voters: you cannot prevail, whether you're on the left (Hillary voted for the Iraq War!) or the right (Rudy is pro-choice!). Elections are won in the middle, and no one gets everything they want.
Jim Shoes,
Whenever a candidate has only one similarity to the party he wants the nomination in, he'll never make it to the general election (to run in the middle and win).
National security is the only issue he is Republican on. And guess what, national security isn't very sexy right now, because that's code for "I support the Iraq war."
"National security is the only issue he is Republican on."
And national security is the only pragmatic issue on which the Republicans are conservatives.
You anti-Rudy "anonymous" people keep stating the obvious and ignoring the important
Iraq is both the most important issue currently and the one most likely to be completely mishandled by a Democratic administration. It behooves conservatives, for the sake of the country and the world, to get over their pet issues and vote for someone who can address effectively the thing that can really, really hurt us. And who can get elected.
Rudy and McCain are the only Rs with a chance of beating the leading Ds. And right now, Hillary beats Rudy in Ohio, which is clearly a key to Republican fortunes. If you want to go down in flames for the sake of principle in a year like 1996, the consequences are small. If you do it in 2008, we retreat in the war with the Islamo-Fascists. And civilization loses.
Let's simplify: in 2008, America will not elect a social conservative. So if the Republicans run one, they'll end up with Hillary or Obama, and the Middle East will become a terrorist haven for the next decade. Or we can elect Rudy, who can do to Baghdad what he did to Manhattan.
"And national security is the only pragmatic issue on which the Republicans are conservatives."
There's that slippery word "conservative" again. I thought I told it to go away and never show it's ugly face again!
Then again, I do not command enormous power like SWNID and am thusly forced into obscure irrelevancy...
Alack and alas!
actually, the craziest thing said here is 'whenever a candidate has only one similarity to the party he wants the nomination in, he'll never make it to the general election'. i don't know how you come to the 'one similarity' count, but let's remember that bill clinton and ronald reagan weren't exactly in the mainstream of their parties, and neither was jimmy carter (god bless him!) or dwight eisenhower.
there hasn't been a poll of likely republican primary voters that hasn't been topped by the un-conservatives giulani and mccain. there will be no die-hard conservative at the top of the republican ticket in 2008 because most republicans know that they need a candidate in the middle to stop the bleeding. voters are sick to death of all things 'conservative'. they want moderation and bipartisanship.
in '08 you can win with center left or center right, but not far right or far left. so wake up.
"Wepub Weal" is right. And the Democrats know this too. They won House and Senate seats with people who looked moderate, like pro-life Casey in Pennsylvania.
Save the "true believer" stuff for the radicals. If you really are a conservative (sorry Bryan D, but I'm using their word), you don't believe in ideological utopias anyway. Do what you can with what you've got.
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