{"id":8270,"date":"2006-08-22T14:54:33","date_gmt":"2006-08-22T18:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/8270.html"},"modified":"2006-08-22T14:54:33","modified_gmt":"2006-08-22T18:54:33","slug":"does-national-security-trump-everything-in-gop-presidential-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/does-national-security-trump-everything-in-gop-presidential-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Does national security trump everything in GOP presidential politics?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lee Bandy, South Carolina’s most revered political journalist, had an interesting item<\/a> this week on the state Republican Party’s decision to host “An Evening Honoring Rudy Giuliani.” As the story goes, Giuliani’s presidential prospects are intact, even in a very conservative state like South Carolina, and despite the former NYC mayor’s liberal positions on several social issues, because national security trumps everything else.<\/p>\n

Former state GOP chairman Barry Wynn said the party needs to take a fresh look at the way it regards new voters, especially those new residents who’ve settled along the coast and are starting to have an impact on state party politics.<\/p>\n

Those voters tend to be more progressive in outlook and are more inclined to support someone like Giuliani. “I think Rudy could be more popular in South Carolina than most people would think,” Wynn said.<\/p>\n

The debate in 2008 isn’t going to be about tax cuts, abortion or Social Security reform — Republican favorites. “The overarching issues this time will be national security and leadership,” Wynn said. “Everything else will fit under that.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Francis Marion University political scientist Neal Thigpen, a GOP activist, said Giuliani can “get away with” supporting legalized abortion and gay rights because of his credibility on national security issues.<\/p>\n

I’ll concede that I’m not in South Carolina, and Thigpen and Wynn are far closer to the state’s activist base than I am, but every indication suggests they’re completely wrong.
\n
\nTake, for example an item<\/a> that ran in New York magazine in 2004.<\/p>\n

Katon Dawson, the South Carolina Republican chairman, touched all the politically correct bases when asked how Giuliani or Pataki would fare in the South Carolina Republican primary. Sure, they would have a chance to win, he said: “They both took America on its worst day, and made us better by the minute.” He helpfully pointed out that this is no small matter; no Republican has won the party’s nomination in recent times without capturing the South Carolina primary, he said.<\/p>\n

Did he know that Pataki and Giuliani have been staunch supporters of gun control? “Well,” he drawled, “we are all supporters of the NRA in South Carolina.”<\/p>\n

Was he aware that both men supported a woman’s right to an abortion? Dawson paused. “That is a litmus test in the South. That would be plowing new ground in South Carolina.”<\/p>\n

And how about their support of some gay rights? There was no pause now. “A big stumbling block,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A big stumbling block, indeed. Throw in the fact Giuliani has a record of repeated adultery<\/a> — including having marched in a St. Patrick’s Day parade with his then mistress — and you have a recipe for some serious consternation from Bible Belt Republican primary voters. As a rule, this is a constituency that looks for ideological purity on all of the major issues — and we’re talking about a candidate who’s “wrong” about guns, abortion, marriage, and<\/i> gays? And he’s running for the GOP nomination? Are you kidding?<\/p>\n

For national security to trump all of this, Giuliani would’ve had to have prevented a terrorist attack personally<\/i>, Jack-Bauer style. Indeed, it’s a delicate issue, but it’s probably worth remembering that Giuliani’s 9\/11 halo is not without limits. By taking a leadership role the day of the attacks, Giuliani impressed nearly everyone. He demonstrated some leadership when people in New York City needed it. But does that make him an expert on national security policy? How, exactly?<\/p>\n

It’s obviously early in the ’08 process, but I still find this notion that Giuliani’s leadership on 9\/11 will somehow help him capture the Republican nomination to be fairly silly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lee Bandy, South Carolina’s most revered political journalist, had an interesting item this week on the state Republican Party’s decision to host “An Evening Honoring Rudy Giuliani.” As the story goes, Giuliani’s presidential prospects are intact, even in a very conservative state like South Carolina, and despite the former NYC mayor’s liberal positions on several […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8270\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}