Giuliani Plans to Publicly Embrace Abortion Rights

[Herman Munster]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/us/politics/10giuliani.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

After months of giving ambiguous signals on abortion, Rudolph W. Giuliani is planning to offer a forthright affirmation of his support for abortion rights in public forums, television appearances and interviews in the coming days, despite potential consequences among some conservative voters already wary of his views, aides said yesterday.

At the same time, Mr. Giuliani’s campaign — seeking to accomplish the unusual task of persuading the Republican Party to nominate an abortion rights supporter as its presidential candidate — is eyeing a path to the nomination that would try to de-emphasize the early states in which abortion opponents wield a great deal of influence. Instead they would focus on the so-called mega-primary of Feb. 5, in which voters in states like California, New York and New Jersey are likely to be more receptive to Mr. Giuliani’s social views than voters in states like Iowa and South Carolina. They said that approach became more appealing after Florida, another state they said would be receptive to Mr. Giuliani, voted last week to move its primary forward to the end of January.

The shift in emphasis by Mr. Giuliani comes as his campaign has struggled to deal with the fallout from the first Republican presidential candidate debate in which he gave a halting and apparently contradictory responses to questions about his support for abortion rights. Mr. Giuliani’s aides were concerned both because it opened him up to a new round of criticism from abortion critics — who have never been happy with the prospect of a Republican presidential candidate who supports abortion rights — while threatening to undercut his image as a tough-talking iconoclast who does not equivocate on tough issues.

The campaign’s approach would be a sharp departure from the traditional route to the Republican nomination of the last 20 years, in which Republicans have highlighted their antiabortion views.

[BlueIris]

1. I feel like this headline should read, "Giuliani plans to publicly commit career suicide."

And more power to him, I say.

[iamjoy]

2. Will He Be Denied Communion?

see this story
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x857378

[HockeyMom]

3. Take your pick

Pro choice, or, divorced and remarried.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

4. He is an acolyte of the cost/benefit ratio.

MKJ

[Disturbed]

5. According to the Catholic Church he and his wife are

living in sin and not actually married. He got his first marriage annuled. Not that I care about that but some Catholic voters might. I hope that he is forced to quit. Rudy G. is a con artist.

[no_hypocrisy]

6. No give-backs, Flip-Flopper. Giuliani said he'd appoint strict constructionist jurists

to the Supreme Court in the model of Scalia, Roberts, and Alito.

Nothing he can say after that can fool me about his "coming out" for abortion rights.