By Scott Tibbs, November 14, 2007
I keep hearing about how "electable" Rudy Giuliani is. Giuliani's camp loves to talk about how he is the candidate who can defeat Hillary Clinton in 2008. Chris Cillizza argues that Giuliani's "moderate stances on social issues make him palatable to independent and moderate voters" who will be critical in the 2008 election. As Kathleen Parker points out, I am sure that Giuliani's "electability" is a primary reason why Pat Robertson abandoned his pro-life views to endorse him, because above all else Robertson does not want to see Hillary Clinton as President.
Have we forgotten history so easily?
In 2004, President Bush was re-elected to serve a second term, despite the fact that the Democrat Party's base was incredibly motivated to send Bush back to Texas. Much of this was due to the "values voters" who turned out to vote for the President. Democrats, realizing that they needed to do something to soften the impact of the "values voters, recruited pro-life Democrats to run in the 2006 mid-term elections. Right here in Indiana, Democrats unseated incumbent John Hostettler by running a pro-life Democrat named Brad Ellsworth. Democrats also recruited Joe Donnelly to run against incumbent Republican Chris Chocola.
You see, Democrats get it. They knew they could not gain political power in the long term unless they could offset the "values voters", especially given the concern that some Leftists have expressed about the fact that conservatives tend to have more children. So why do some Republicans cling to the myth that we have to be "moderate" on social issues in order to win elections, especially the presidential election?
LifeNews.com reports that pro-life presidential candidate Ron Paul believes many Republicans are retiring because "they are very pessimistic because of the potential of someone like Giuliani becoming the nominee." Paul is right. Conservatives are already gearing up to fight Giuliani in the same way that they are ready to fight Clinton. One News Now reports that Paul Weyrich of the Free Congress Foundation is endorsing Mitt Romney because he believes Romney has "the best chance of knocking off former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the primary." NNN reports that the National Right to Life Committee endorsed Fred Thompson because NRLC believes Thompson is "the best candidate to beat Republican front-runner Rudy Giuliani."
The myth of Giuliani's "electability" is one reason why I am so disappointed with Pat Robertson's endorsement of the former New York City Mayor. I lost a lot of respect for Robertson when he endorsed Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor of California in 2003, and I lost a lot more respect for him with this endorsement. Robertson abandoned his pro-life views, sacrificing the lives of unborn children for political power. I have a news flash for Pat Robertson: for nearly 50 million human beings killed over the last 30 years alone, the abortion industry is far more dangerous than Islamic terrorists.
Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, "But we knew nothing about this," does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not He who guards your life know it? Will He not repay each person according to what he has done? -- Proverbs 24:11-12
