Say Anything Blog

Guliani A tough Conservative Sell.

Rudy Giuliani’s star has hardly dimmed in the five years since terrorists attacked his city on Sept. 11, 2001, and he became a national hero — the face of U.S. resolve at a time of tragedy.
The Republican dubbed “America’s Mayor” hopes to ride that celebrity and his record at City Hall to the White House by emphasizing his leadership skills and embracing the strong-on-security, limited-government tenets of the GOP.

“If he can handle the scrutiny, and if events break his way, sure, he can win,” said Fred Siegel, who wrote a Giuliani biography, “The Prince of the City.”

Giuliani’s quest to capture his party’s presidential nomination won’t be easy.

He’s a moderate Republican from New York City, on the wrong side of social issues in the eyes of hard-core conservatives who are a crucial voting bloc in the primaries. His mayoral tenure was marked by criticism of an overzealous police force. He’s linked to the city’s scandal-plagued ex-police chief Bernard Kerik. His thicket of business interests could pose conflicts. He’s been divorced twice.

“I sure have strengths and weaknesses,” Giuliani said recently. “I think that sort of puts me in the same category as just about everybody else that’s running. Are my strengths greater or my weaknesses worse? I don’t know. You have to sort of examine that. That won’t be the issue.”

His challenge will be to remind voters of his take-charge attitude on Sept. 11 and his two-term mayoral reign, at the same time his main rivals — Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — no doubt will try to exploit his background and record. For now, both are trying to gauge how much of a threat he may be.

Here is an article: But they don’t get the just of the argument. The man is a Liberal Republican and the GOP can not win with a Liberal Republican because the conservative base will not vote for him. 

But first he has to capture the GOP nomination — and the big question is whether he can win over enough Republicans in states like Iowa and South Carolina, among the first nominating contests where voters are solid conservatives and could be turned off by his stance on social issues.

“Giuliani is going to have to convince people that he’s more conservative than his record otherwise would suggest,” said Peverill Squire, who teaches politics at the University of Iowa.

The former mayor’s support for abortion rights, gay rights and gun control conflict with the hard-line positions of the GOP’s right. His supporters say he’s not as liberal on those issues as he’s made out to be. Still, he’s from New York — and that alone rankles the party’s conservative wing.

Rudy is not going to capture the base with Gay Rights and being Pro-abortion. The conservative base is what he needs to get elected and I predict that the religious right will not vote for him.

The only way I could see him getting elected if he got through the primary was the anybody but Hillary Vote.