Right Side of the Rainbow

Toby Harnden:

Republicans are at a tipping point. If they want to win in 2008, they have to accept their 2006 defeat as deserved and coalesce around a candidate who may not be ideologically perfect but who is nevertheless electable and effective.

Strange as it seems, there are signs that Mr Giuliani, who once lived with two gay men and a Chihuahua named Bonnie as he awaited his second divorce, could be emerging as the most viable Republican candidate. Character and perceived competence may turn out to trump ideology in 2008.

The former New York mayor has already indicated he won’t let his socially liberal personal views stop him appointing conservative judges. And who better than the hero of 9/11 to persuade Republicans that defeat in 2008 is not inevitable and convince Americans that the war on terror is not lost?