The Republican Straw Man
By Josh Matlock
Fri, 03/09/2007 - 3:10pm
This Republican candidate for president has two estranged children, a history of infidelity and divorce, is pro-choice, pro-gay marriage, and anti-gun. Who could this be? The answer is former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
In Republican circles, Giuliani’s personal history and positions on issues is considered nothing short of a rap sheet. Yet despite his positions and history, Giuliani leads in early polling. Many, including this reporter, find this confusing.
I, on the other hand, believe that this is just the quiet before the storm. It is only a matter of time before Giuliani gets rocked by a Katrina-sized disaster. The Politico writes about this impending storm and the first signs of thunder rumbling from the Romney campaign. Rest assured that when the wind begins blowing and the rain starts falling, Giuliani’s straw will have tough time weathering the storm.
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Is Pragmatism Trumping Idealism?
By Patrick M McLeod
Fri, 03/09/2007 - 4:58pm
So far, I think Giuliani's campaign has benefited from 2 factors and potentially from my "Silver Ballot" theory: First, even for Giuliani and McCain, there's low voter knowledge about them beyond sound bites and headlines. Second, because it's so early in the race and we are therefore still a ways from Primary Season, the negatives haven't begun to ramp up yet.
My "Silver Ballot" theory as it pertains to social conservatives and Republican primaries is that social conservatives are more pragmatic than many of us think (I'm including myself in that group). When they go into the election booth and pull the lever or fill out the scantron or turn the dial on the electronic voting machine, they're as interested or more interested in whether or not they are nominating a candidate that will win (and that they can exert pressure on once he's in office) than they are with nominating a candidate who meets their stringent ideological purity tests.
I figured that Sam Brownback would be the great spoiler for the rest of the Republican field in this cycle because I expected him to command the immediate loyalty of social conservatives everywhere; while I think his ideas and policies would leave us partying like it's 1599, he is pretty much the ideal social conservative candidate. Yet look at his numbers...he's mired in the low single digits in the TTT (third tier toilet) of the Republican field.