Rudy Effort Picking Up Steam

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is something of a paradox anyway, so it surprises few people to realize that "America's Mayor" isn't running a "conventional" campaign for the Republican nomination on so many levels. After some tumbles early on, it seems clear now that the Giuliani campaign has found its stride and is picking up steam heading into the fall campaign season.

There were missteps and foibles in the infantile days of the campaign. A draft of the Giuliani like when an early draft of a campaign plan ended up in a New York City newspaper. At the first Republican debate, the Mayor seemed surprised and unprepared for a thoroughly predictable abortion question. He remained at or near the top of the national polls, propped up mostly by his national name recognition and the longstanding respect he commands for his September 11th leadership. But the campaign really seemed to be a lackluster enterprise for the 2001 Time Magazine Person of the Year.

But times, they are a changing. The Giuliani campaign has geared up, putting hordes of new people on the ground in New Hampshire, Iowa, and at least one person in every February 5th state - yes, including both North Dakota and Connecticut. This week Rudy announced his health care plan, which heavily relies on incentivizing the purchase of individual insurance plans via tax credits. Along with the other points in Giuliani's agenda, the Twelve Commitments to the American People, has really gotten positive attention in recent days.

The national media seems to be transfixed on the Giuliani position on abortion. He not only was once a pro-choice Republican, he remains a pro-choice Republican. This fact alone seems to baffle reporters. It became fashionable in the mainstream media to turn the Republican Party into a 2 dimensional cartoon where there is only either "pro-life" or "heretic". While there are certainly ardent "pro-life" factions in the GOP, the historical roots and the signficant underpinning of Party philosophy remains a commitment to solutions at the state level, instead of a "one-size fits all" federal solution. Giuliani says that the federal government should leave the hotly divisive social issue to each state to decide. For the punditry - and in many cases, the activists - to coo over this "triangulated position" is either demonstrable evidence of the fear harbored by many southpaw pundits for Mayor Giuliani or a red badge of ignorance for all to see.

The Rudy effort is clearly well underway now and churning toward an aggressive fall campaign. Giuliani's rhetoric on fighting Islamo-facism has been among the toughest of the Presidential campaign season, much to the chagrin of the national Democrats while the Republican candidates race to catch up. It seems obvious that the former Mayor of New York is primed to wage an effective campaign for the Republican Presidential nomination.