It may be that Rudy Giuliani's strategy to lay low then come on strong with be the death of his candidacy. Yet, like Dennis Prager, Rudy is still my first choice. Little with which I disagree in these paragraphs.
Rudy Giuliani may have made a great mistake by not campaigning in New Hampshire, Nevada, Iowa and South Carolina. But between Rudy Giuliani (and, for that matter, Mitt Romney) on the one hand and John McCain on the other, there is little question as to who more embodies mainstream conservative and Republican principles.
But Giuliani is not merely more of a conservative than John McCain. In fact, if it is Ronald Reagan that Republicans want, Giuliani is extraordinarily close to that venerated man. Ronald Reagan stood for two great beliefs: that big government is a big problem for a free society and that America must be militarily strong and lead the war against global communism.
Substitute "global jihadism" for "global communism" and you have Rudy Giuliani's twin pillars. His one major weakness in appealing to all conservatives is that he is for abortion rights. Let me, then, briefly address all those who, like me, consider nearly all abortions immoral.
Ronald Reagan was pro-life, and it mattered little to the pro-life cause. Concerning abortion, what matters most in a president is the type of judges he appoints to the Supreme Court. As George Will wrote on behalf of Giuliani, "The way to change abortion law is to change courts by means of judicial nominations of the sort Giuliani promises to make." It is extremely unlikely that John McCain would appoint similarly conservative judges. After all, why would he appoint judges like Scalia and Alito who apparently differ with him on the constitutionality of McCain's own "campaign finance reform" laws?
Pro-life Republicans need to ask themselves: Will a Democrat or Giuliani as president render abortion less common in America? The best is the enemy of the better. And Giuliani is far better on abortion than any Democratic nominee.
Giuliani is for school vouchers, against bilingual education, for reducing taxes further, for reducing government spending. And he has well-thought-out positions on how to achieve these things. He also has the experience of cleaning up the most liberal major city in America.
I write this column aware that Giuliani may have lost his chance at getting the Republican nomination. But I could not live with my conscience if I did not articulate one week before the potentially decisive Florida primary why I believe Rudy Giuliani would make an excellent president of the United States.
Why do Republican love Reagan. He brought the country trickle-down economics which only benefitted the wealthiest. And Iran-Contra Gate as well as a total of 225 people who served in the Reagan administration who either quit, were fired, arrested, indicted, or convicted for either breaking the law or violating the Ethics Code.Hmm, reminds me of Bushie.
Posted by: jammen | Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 08:16 AM
You know what the most humorous thing about the new found Republican love for Reagan is? If he was to run for office today as a Republican, he would lose. Let us not forget, it was Reagan that first used the word "Amnesty" when it came to illegal aliens. Did not Reagan leave the middle east after our troops were killed in a bombing accident? Wouldn't that be called a "cut and runner"? Reagan sold arms to the mighty evil Iran, how far would that get him with today's Republicans? While Reagan did lower taxes at times, and believed in that crazy notion of 'trickle down" he also raised taxes at times. Here is a man who believed in FDR, the same man the Right is trying to label as 'evil'. So while I hear all this Reagan talk, the Republican Party of today would have no use for Reagan, and he would find himself solely out of place in the Republican Party of today.
Now please do not take this as any endorsement of Reagan, because I flat out hated the policies he enacted. But given the stands of the new Radical Republican Party of today, even as heinous as I found Reagan, he was a mere lamb compared to today's Republican Party.
Posted by: Greg | Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 06:49 PM