Blogger Texas Rainmaker Joins Giuliani Exploratory Committee;
Immediately Begins Posting Slurs About Pope "Fancyhat" Benedict

Well, not the second part. He explains his decision:

It wasn’t as easy a decision as it was when I worked on Bush’s campaigns, primarily because of Rudy’s positions on certain social issues. I know I’m not the only conservative that feels this way. But I met with Pat Oxford, chair of Rudy’s Exploratory Committee a few weeks ago and he assured me Rudy is by no means a pro-abortion, gay-marriage loving liberal in sheep’s clothing. Rudy is staunchly Catholic and very anti-abortion personally. He also believes marriage should be defined as between one man and one woman.

But what of his policies? His track record would seem to indicate something different. Or does it? In the 8 years Rudy was Mayor of NYC, abortions in NYC declined at a greater pace than they did nationally.

In related news, the Giuliani campaign has generously invited me to join Romney for President.

Meanwhile... A new poll of registered Republicans has it 59-34 Rudy over McCain.

On the Democratic side, Hillary! continues losing ground to Obama:

Meanwhile, a Newsweek poll of registered Democrats showed Democratic Sen. Barack Obama chipping away at front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's lead in the past month.

Clinton enjoyed the support of 52 percent of registered Democrats in the latest poll to Obama's 38 percent. That compared with 55 percent for Clinton and 35 percent for the Illinois senator in late January, Newsweek said.

Meanwhile, Kirsten Powers is knocking Giuliani -- for not being hardcore conservative enough, sorta -- which is a good sign the Democrats are a bit worried about him.

It is true that social cons (and most Republicans) aren't aware that Rudy isn't a social con. On the other hand, that little misleading factoid about Rudy appoint liberal judges as mayor -- a key Democratic Talking Point and key talking point among Rudy's opponents -- has been pretty thoroughly debunked by this point:

I asked [Bill] Simon about the recent issue with judges. The Politico posted an article on Rudy's track record on judicial nominations, and reported that Giuliani appointed more Democrats than Republicans to the bench as Mayor. Hower, Simon called this misleading. The mayor does not have a free hand in judicial appointments in New York City. An independent panel gives the mayor a choice of three candidates for each open seat, and the mayor has to select from those three. Rudy did not choose the candidates; he had to select one of three locked-in choices.

I'm surprised to see a generally-fair Democrat like Powers pushing something that simply isn't true (or isn't true like they'd like it to be true); I'll chalk it up to her not simply not having read this yet. Hopefully she'll drop this talking point in the future.

And On Romney: Dick Morris wrote of the Republican nomination process as a series of playoffs between bracketed opponents, like the NCAA's. In his analysis, there's a playoff for the center right (Rudy vs. McCain) and a playoff for the more social-con right (Romney vs. ... well, Gingrich if he runs, or else a lesser known candidate like Brownback).

Only one candidate in each bracket will suvive for long, he thinks, which makes sense. McCain seems to have all but lost his contest, making Mitt Romney (as of the current moment) Rudy's real challenger for the presidential semifinals. (The true finals come following the Hillary!/Obama playoff, which Obama's going to win.)

posted by Ace at 04:38 PM

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