Former New York City Mayor [tag]Rudy Giuliani[/tag] doesn’t seem the type to win a Republican presidential primary. He’s [tag]pro-choice[/tag] and supports [tag]gay[/tag] rights. Towards the end of his tenure, he even lived with two gay friends after his wife threw him out of the house for adultery.
With this in mind, [tag]Jerry Falwell[/tag]’s concerns seem like a no-brainer.
The Rev. Jerry [tag]Falwell[/tag] doesn’t see any Democrat making inroads with evangelical Christian voters in the next presidential election. Potential Republican candidate Rudolph [tag]Giuliani[/tag], the former New York city mayor, won’t be scoring any points with Falwell, either. “Everybody admires him. And I’ll never forget the great things he did on 9/11 and following,” Falwell said.
“But, of course, we have, as conservative Christians who take the Bible seriously, we have probably irreconcilable differences on life and family and that kind of thing,” Falwell said Sunday on “Late Edition” on CNN. “I’ll never speak an ill word about him because he means so much to America. But, yes, you’re right. I couldn’t support him for president,” he said.
No big surprise, right? Well, no, but it’s of at least some interest in light of [tag]Pat Robertson[/tag]’s support of Giuliani. Just a week ago, [tag]Robertson[/tag] was on CBS News praising the former mayor.
“I don’t share some of his social point of view, but Rudy is a tremendous leader. And he ran a big city. So I think in terms of just competency for presidency, he’d be a good one.”
This follows similar comments from a year ago, in which Robertson told George Stephanopoulos, “Rudy’s a very good friend of mine, and he did a super job running the City of New York. And I think he’d make a good president. I like him a lot.”
Just yesterday, the New York Times noted that there are subtle fissures among [tag]evangelical[/tag] Christians between “centrists,” who want to tackle moral issues beyond a conservative political agenda, and “traditionalists,” who dominate the religious right leadership.
I’d argue, however, that even among traditionalists, there are two camps — “idealists,” who put moral issues above political expediency, and “pragmatists,” who’d vote for anyone with a “R” after their name that they thought might win.