Glenn Reynolds mentions the problems that social conservatives (like me!) would have with Rudy Giuliani, but isn’t he by last check also anti-gun – a position even Democrats shy away from now?
Still, when people think of Giuliani they think of a strong leader, and that’s what we need right now. It’s also why I like him more than McCain even though on paper I agree more with McCain on the issues.
So, what do you think?
(BTW, Glenn and Helen had a podcast interview with Senator John McCain if you haven’t seen it yet)
UPDATE: When I say “strong leadership” what I mean is that, given the chance, I’m quite sure Giuliani would beat a terrorist to death with a tire iron and take great pleasure in it.
I for one will NEVER vote for Giuliani OR McCain in ’08!!!
badum-tish
Kim du Toit has a different ticket:
COULTER/HANNITY
http://www.theothersideofkim.com/index.php/tos/single/9530/
I’m starting to think we are going to need a no nonsense, kick ass president and Rudi is looking better and better! He won’t take any crap from Iran or Syria!
Giuliani has, in my opinion, a fair number of things wrong, but he gets the one big thing right: he understands that we’re in a war with Islamofascists. That trumps everything else. I also think that he would have a better chance of winning the election than any other likely Republican candidate.
OT: Today is Bastille Day. In honor of that, I won’t be bathing, and I’ll be producing incredibly complex mechanical devices that rarely work properly.
RINO McCain sucks. Rudy isn’t much better. I gotta go with Tancredo or Newt. I want a Reaganite Conservative.
Well duh…nobody told me that Newt was a choice! He’s my guy! Of course he won’t make it because the press will savage him and most other republicans are chicken shit and won’t stand up for him…but he’s still my guy! And it would be nice to have a President that could string a couple of sentences together for a change…good grief!!!
While Rudy may be strong on terror, he is very liberal on most other issues. I am sad to see how many RINO’s there are in congress – and now you want to add another one to the presidency. What good is it to keep us safe from terror for the next 4 (8) years if the country dies fronm the inside from liberalism?
If the Republicans can’t put up a conservative for the presidency I won’t vote for them at that level. We need to put conservatives in power at all levels to not end up like France.
I could vote for either. Right now, we will need continued strong leadership, and electability. In the end, folks, its about winning, not any singular, or group, of issues. Yeah, I’m not an issue voter, most of what left and right scream about are a waste of time no one will change oppinion on anyways.
Sgt. Joe
The big thing Giuliani has going for him is he has intimate knowledge of how our security, police, and legal system work. Add to that, the fact that he has repeatedly worked within that system with resounding success, often where others had very little success. He also has the administrative, leadership, communication skills, and charisma for the job.
Sometimes someone most appropriate for the job, isn’t someone you agree with closely. I don’t think he will press any wedge issues with conservatives. He will have a full plate as it is with security, energy, and economic policy. His appeal to the center would help in a divisive election. He can also work with centrists and center Democrats. What few center Democrats that are left.
“It’s also why I like him more than McCain even though on paper I agree more with McCain on the issues.” -Frank
Accurate. Problem with McCain is that’s all you get, paper; no substance. McCain is an insulting blowhard, and a jackass. Truly a leaf on the water.
Would Giuliani beat a terrorist to death with a tire iron? Absolutely. Let’s be realistic for a few seconds: His views on gay marriage and gun control are non-issues. He would never EVER be able to get anything passed that federalized gay marriage or took guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens. Would never happen in a million years so you can stop bringing it up. He could no more outlaw guns than he could outlaw liberals. It is an argument that detracts from actual issues and facts by its very design.
I’ll take Giuliani over that silly panderer McCain any day of the week.
Hell, I could vote for a Liebermann/Zell Miller ticket, considering the likely alternatives.
Zel!!! Now THAT is a good idea. People make fun of a Cheney mis-fire but let us not forget: Zel Miller actually challenged Chris Matthews to a duel. My hero. Zel Miller would have my vote for any office he chose to run for… for solidarity if nothing else.
Trackback (‘cuz I couldn’t get your trackback to pop up):
Anywhere But Here
I think George Allen.
Disdain for McCain!
High minded principles
Poor execution.
That’s my problem with McCain. He’s put together some of the worst legislation I have seen. He’s got the communications skills and the moxie for the job but lacks the organization, temperament, and skill set for the job.. I’m not sure he’s much of a step up from Bush on brains either. He’s not a team player.
Well… pre-9/11, Giuliani was noted for, among other things, his obsessive hatred of fireworks.
If the tales of the 1995 PGI convention in Weedsport are true, then Giuliani put his personal obsession above the laws and any concept of jurisdiction, to bust up a perfectly legal gathering that wasn’t even in NYC.
This does not bode well, and suggests that President Giuliani might, e.g., send ATFE on head-bustin’ raids at legal gun shows, just because he feels like it.
What a lot of non-New Yorkers may not know is how much the left hated him when he was mayor. His anti-terrorist/strong leader vibe goes back beyond 9/11 and into his cleaning up the city despite the “rights” of the homeless, drug dealers, squeegee men, and other colorful aspects of life back then. I give him strong credit for his enemies of old.
McCain calculates the politics of any issue as obviously as any Clinton.
Give me a strong leader with beliefs over a weasly position any time
If Giuliani were elected President, he would have the rest of the country to govern…not just a state full of dickheads like New York who all believe they are the center of the Universe anyway….and they live in a shit-hole that the rest of us wouldn’t move to for all the money in the world…
and oh yea, the mets and the yankees are gay…the only thing gayer than the mets and the yankees are the jets and the giants!
“This does not bode well, and suggests that President Giuliani might, e.g., send ATFE on head-bustin’ raids at legal gun shows, just because he feels like it.”
???? Unauthorized “head-bustin'” raids of “legal gun shows” ????
Not likely. Giuliani has always stayed well within the law irregardless of what the screeching left wing loonies say or a few hysterical right wingers.
Giuliani: Fatal flaws. Is he Gay?
McCain: RINO.
Allen: What’d he do? Maybe ok?
Tancrado: Moonbat. Yeah, tough on Immiagrants but nutty as fruitcake.
Romney: Looks pretty strong. Especially recently.
There’s no one who looks very good. Giuliani is way too much of a dem on the social issues which, to me, are more important than all others combined. McCain’s only principle is self-promotion. Ashcroft probably wouldn’t run, which is a damn shame.
I’m with Silicon Valley Jim, Neo-anderthal, and especially Joe Foo’. Electability and unabashed pro-American guts first, all else is quibbling. We’re going to have a number of good choices, but they’re all going to come from one side, so you lot who’re saying you’ll “never” vote for Giuliani and even McCain hold your horses, ’cause history suggests that “none of the above” will fail, as always, to get on the ballot in 2008 and staying home on election day is looking more like treason every time a Democrat opens his mouth.
Sorry, I got the year and the event name wrong… it was in fact the 1998 Summer Fireworks Festival… but it was in Weedsport, and it was reportedly raided, illegally, by Giuliani’s pet Fireworks Task Force, operating entirely outside of Giuliani’s jurisdiction.
I put Giuliani and McCain both in the same bin as today’s so-called liberals: more interested in their agendas than in the Constitution, and having no interest in the rights of anyone who doesn’t have a well-organized pressure group. And, of course, happy to take credit for making the trains run on time.
Disdain for McCain!
My disdain does only goes so far. If he got the Rep nomination I would most likely vote for him. I would consider voting for someone like Lieberman on the Dem side, but that isn’t going to happen. I’m certainly not voting for Hillary. Funny thing is most of the Democratic party has drifted far to the left of Hillary. I shouldn’t get started, I could go on and on about how the Democratic party has gone straight into the crapper.
I’ll never forgive McCain for violating our first amendment rights with Campaign Finance “Reform”. He’s out for me. I could hold my nose for Rudy. Hell, depending on who’s on the Dem side of the ticket, I could hold my nose for just about anyone. If only Newt could win the nomination (sigh). Not only does he have brains, but he knows how to use them.
“Sorry, I got the year and the event name wrong… it was in fact the 1998 Summer Fireworks Festival… but it was in Weedsport, and it was reportedly raided, illegally, by Giuliani’s pet Fireworks Task Force, operating entirely outside of Giuliani’s jurisdiction.”
A few incidents of overstepping does not a carrier make. I’m willing to bet that he’s made a good number of decisions I don’t care for. He spent his whole carrier in law enforcement and was one of the most effective US Attorneys in New York’s history. Sorry, but raiding a fireworks festival doesn’t pass as the sort of critical event to judge his career by. The whole incident sounds like a stuff up to me. Have you got a pattern of abuse to show me.
“And, of course, happy to take credit for making the trains run on time.”
Are you kidding me. The level of success he had with getting New York Cities monstrous bureaucracy up and running was nothing short of amazing. This was a bureaucracy that everyone thought was hopeless for decades.
Remember when the Lousiana Govenor race was between David Duke and a throughly corrupt (Name?) Edwards? Remember the bumper stickers “Vote for the Crook, it’s important”?
That is the situation social conservatives will find themselves in with Guiliani and all conservatives with McCain. Considering the likely alternatives (Clinton part II, (spit) Feingold (spit), John Kerry or John Edwards) either of them is better than letting the liberals win. We can dream of a Reaganite, but we are not likely to get one.
My fervent hope is to JUST ONCE vote FOR a presidential candidate rather than against the opponent. (0 for 5 so far).
So all you folks who live in primary states that actually matter, please give us a good candidate. I live in Indiana so I have never once been involved with selecting the candidates in 5 presidential cycles.
Sigh.
Rudy would make and excellent head of Homeland Security, but anything more is to promote him to incompetence. There is more to our long term internal security than crime and terrorism.
McCain is sort of a magic eight ball when it comes to policy – sometimes excellent, sometimes you just have to shake your head. Maybe he can replace Carter when we need to send someone overseas to give away the store to some petty dictator we don’t really want to deal with. He’s done it with the Democrats enough.
Romney, being Mormon, and given their beliefs on the US eventually saving the world by being loaded with Mormons, seems to be a bad idea when you have someone with similar views in charge of Iran.
“There is more to our long term internal security than crime and terrorism.”
I’d have to disagree. If someone manages to get a dirty bomb or one of those N Korean nukes into NYC, it doesn’t matter what the presidents position on abortion is, we’d have a much deeper pile of sh!t on our hands.
Given the fantastic work Guilliani did cleaning up NYC, I’d love to see what he would do regarding the immegration problem.
To stop a McCain or (shudder) Hillary presidency, I’d vote Rudy, but it’d be a nose-holder.
Seriously, can’t the GOP do even slightly better than this? How about a non-insider? Someone like Uncle Jimbo from Black5?
…Seriously, can’t the GOP do even slightly better than this?…
I’ve been saying for quite some time that McCain ain’t gonna make it. I think he’s sick–that cancer on his left jawline. A run in ’08 would make him our oldest president ever, and I can’t help but believe that 5 years in a Hanoi prison cell wouldn’t affect one’s longevity. In addition to the Campaign Finance matter which bears his name, he’s a charter member of the Keating 5. His wife has had her own mini-scandal relating to prescription drugs. McCain’s got too many skeletons.
But I do like the sound of “Rummy/Rice ’08”. Or is it “Rice/Rummy”? Does it matter to anyone?
“McCain calculates the politics of any issue as obviously as any Clinton.”
-avgourmet
Amen, Bro.
McCain is right out; and Guiliano? Well, I just got a bad feeling about Guiliano. I’d vote for him, but I’d be very apprehensive…
Now If I could have it my way: Ann Coulter for Prez!!! Then we’d have someone who doesn’t give a S… ’bout what anybody thinks, she’d simply do what needed to be done. I’ve yet to find anything I disagree with her on.
oh yeah, and that last post was by me, btw.
McCain is a McWeinie. Guiliani may be weak on some social issues but he is tough as nails on terrorism and is typical NYer who wouldn’t take shit from anybody. Remember that Arab asshole who wanted to donate a buncha money to NY after 9/11? Well, there were strings attached and Rudy told him to stuff it. I also think he would nuke the moon.
Guiliani: a civil-asset forfeiture whore of the worst stripe. His leadership on 9/11 and afterward were inspiring, but not enough to make me forget his defense of civil-asset forfeiture without a criminal conviction.
In an interview about NYPDs new tool to fight prostitution – seizing vehicles at the time of arrest – Guiliani was asked about the implications of seizing a family car for the actions of, say, the husband/father of the family. His response was to say that if mom doesn’t want the car seized, she should make sure dad isn’t out on the streets looking for hookers.
Can we put that on a billboard somewhere in NYC?
“Wanna keep your car? Get busy, Hoover.”
I’ve recently come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter who wins the presidency in ’08, as long as they’re somewhere in the mainstream. I’m as hardcore right as they come, but the president just doesn’t have the same control anymore. Sure, he can either veto like crazy and not allow anything through, or can just sign everything into law like Bush has done, but in reality, what we’ve seen over the past 10 or so years is that the while the president may set the agenda, he doesn’t do anything after the fact. He might say that he wants an increase in medicare benefits, but does nothing to figure out what to do. He leaves that to congress, who screws it up, then signs a flawed bill into law and takes credit for whatever good may come.
From the choices that I’m seeing for 08′, my decision would have to be Guiliani, even if he is more liberal on some issues. He’s still a fiscal conservative, which is what this country needs. As long as the conservatives stay in power in congress, and stay somewhat conservative, they’ll keep his liberal social tendencies in line. The two most important things that will be faced in the next presidential term will be the war on terror, which I’d trust Guiliani with, and control of spending. I think he’ll control spending much better than Bush has. I hope.