Right Side of the Rainbow

RPC’s John McIntyre:

There is an assumption by many that Giuliani is un-nominatable as a Republican for President given his less than conservative positions on many social issues. Charlie Cook summed up the conventional Washington wisdom on Giuliani’s chances with his statement in the Washington Post several months ago that he’ll “win the Tour de France before Rudy Giuliani wins the Republican nomination.”

But the conventional wisdom on Giuliani’s ability to capture the nomination is wrong. Not only can Giuliani win the GOP nomination, but as the Republican field sits today he has to be considered the favorite.

National Review’s John Podhoretz:

Rudy, by contrast, is trying to convince social conservatives that he’s their friend. They disagree on certain matters, he’ll say, but on the key issue of our time — the struggle of the West against Islamic extremism — they’ll never have a better or more staunch ally and leader.

And while his personal views on some issues may differ from theirs, he’ll appoint judges in the manner of Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, John Roberts and Samuel Alito — which is, in the end, most of what a president can do to support the ideas in which social conservatives deeply believe.

It may not work. But he’s knocking on an open door. Giuliani’s support is solid and quite deep, and his numbers are very strong.

The key point is this: Republicans want to nominate him if they can — if he can demonstrate to them that he’s not too liberal for them.

And that’s a very powerful position to start from.