John Podhoretz has a different take on Rudy’s recent blunder on the abortion question: he thinks that Rudy just doesn’t know very much about it and that he is winging it. That’s about the most positive thing that could be hoped for in what he said. Podhoretz writes that Rudy is blowing his chances to become the nominee because he is not doing what he did in New York; i.e., working really hard to master the details of the issues and come at them from a position of strength. I don’t know if that explains everything about Rudy’s recent comments on abortion--but it rings true to a certain degree. Still, it’s not a great thing in a presidential candidate if the best thing you can say about him on a subject is that he knows not what he says.
I must say, its remarkable to watch the game Republicans are playing with themselves as they try to persuade each other that somebody with Giuliani’s extensive history of crystal clear positions supporting abortion can be counted on to appoint Edith Jones to the Supreme Court.
It’s enough to make me wonder if there is not some truth to the sterotype of the religious person as stupid, or at least fatally naive.
Oh great... like we need another four years of that.
Very sound advice from JPod. Mega-dittoes.
Why would a Roe supporter appoint someone who’d overturn it? Guiliani admits that his view of "strict constructionist" judges includes people who’d uphold Roe out of respect for precedent. Great. We’ll get more Kennedy’s & O’Connor’s.