StormWarning’s Counterterrorism

I haven’t taken sides yet in the Republican Presidential nominee marathon.  OKAY, I am decidely against Giuliani, but I haven’t really seen enough yet to pick my favorite.  But when the WaPo compares Rudy to Tricky Dick, it should be sign enough to the RNC that they need an electable candidate.

In R. Milhous Giuliani, Michael Gerson makes the astute and at the same time hilarious comparison between Rudy and Dick…or is that Dick and Rudy?

With the same rootless confidence that causes people to ignore hurricane warnings, many social conservatives remain in denial about Rudy Giuliani’s chances of winning the Republican nomination.

I know, I know!  The social conservatives among us will claim that the Washington Post is trying their best to torpedo the Giuliani campaign (in fact, it is likely that any supported of Rudy’s will say the same thing).  The point of the article is one word, electability.  But here we are still 16 months from the election, and the "horses are already in the starting gate."

The questions:
1) Can Rudy sew up the nomination before "slow" Fred Thompson jumps into the pool with his expected but delayed splash?
2) Will social conservatives overlook Rudy’s questionable pro-life views?
3) Does the "silent majority" still exist?  (not with the Internet is doesn’t!)
4) Will Rudy’s enemies, the ACLU, the NY Times and racists and Islamists help or hurt him?
5) Will the country lean toward social conservatism or all out counter-terrorism (Rudy’s stance on terrorism is probably the one area where I agree with him)
6) Rudy is powerhungry and combative (not sure which way that one trends to the Electorate).

Giuliani is not only pro-choice. He has supported embryonic stem cell research and public funding for abortion. He supports the death penalty. He supports "waterboarding" of terror suspects and seems convinced that the conduct of the war on terrorism has been too constrained. Individually, these issues are debatable. Taken together, they are the exact opposite of Catholic teaching, which calls for a "consistent ethic of life" rather than its consistent devaluation. No one inspired by the social priorities of Pope John Paul II can be encouraged by the political views of Rudy Giuliani. Church officials who criticized John Kerry on abortion are anxious for the opportunity to demonstrate their bipartisanship by going after a Republican. Those attacks on Giuliani have already begun.

I just don’t see it.  Rudy is a hero of September 11th, making him an icon of the 21st Century War on Terror.  He is also a bully and a poor judge of character in the people who surround him…he is a contradiction.  IMO, he’s unelectable (so too, in my opinion, is Hillary Clinton, who in IMO, should remain in the Senate).

He’s now only 6.9% ahead of non-candidate Thompson in the Real Clear Politics poll…and at least according to one source, BTC News, they all trail "none-of-the-above" (see the AP story - AP Poll: GOP Pick Is ‘None of the Above’)

The AP story on the poll says that “23 percent [of Republicans] can’t or won’t say which candidate they would back, a jump from the 14 percent who took a pass in June.”

Now, that’s a candidate with L.E.G.s!  There’s more on MSNBC’s First Read, OH-EIGHT (R): OH, GIULIANI GIRL as well.

Crossposted on RCP.

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