Tuesday, June 05, 2007

Rudy Wins   [Rich Lowry]

If any pro-choicer can win the Republican presidential nomination, it's Rudy Giuliani. His abortion answer was bad, but what people will remember is his joking around about getting struck down by lightening during it. Otherwise, he was quick, commanding, authoritative-sounding—altogether the Big Man on stage, projecting the image of the kind of guy you can trust during a time of war. He kept taking digs at Washington, burnishing his outsider credentials, and was frank and feisty in taking it to the enemy both metaphorical (the Dems, the media) and real (Islamic terrorism). For all the invocations of Reagan during these forums, Rudy's strength and emphasis on freedom is probably what is going to strike most voters as really Reaganesque. (All this said, I wish he cared to try to reach an accommodation with pro-lifers that would make his candidacy even stronger).

McCain was very good too, especially at the beginning of the second half when movingly addressing the woman who lost her brother in Iraq. McCain is (on the big things) a conviction politician, there's no doubt about it. And he was energetic and well-spoken tonight. The problem he has is that his convictions can be at odds with those of most Republicans, and he had to be hurt tonight by the sheer amount of time spent on immigration. No matter how fluent or persuasive he is on this issue, he's not going to overcome the resistance in his party to the Senate bill. And sometimes you could begin to hear McCain the scold creeping in, and that's not the most attractive part of his political persona.

Romney was polished as always, but didn't quite have the gravitas of Rudy and McCain on national security, seemed to get less time than the other top-tier candidates (although I didn't clock it), and seemed to dodge some of the flip-flop questions. He was particularly off his game toward the end, where he seemed to want to steer the conversation back no matter what to selling things. Not a terrible night by any means (he might not be capable of having one of those in these forums), but he probably was in third of the top three.

06/05 09:39 PMShare