XPost: az.general, az.politics   
   From: michelle@michelle.org   
      
   I could vote for him for president, depending on who his Democratic   
   opponent is.  Obviously, I don't agree with all of his stances, but I   
   doubt that there is any candidate who I agree with 100%, although   
   Kucinich comes close.   
      
   The following article is from a "pro life" web site.  They offer a   
   single-issue viewpoint, and will not vote for a candidate they consider   
   to be "pro abortion" regardless of any other issue.   
      
   Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City   
   mayor, enjoys substantial leads in both national polls of Republicans   
   and surveys of likely GOP voters in Iowa and New Hampshire. However, a   
   new poll from Fox News finds a substantial number of Republicans don't   
   know that he backs legalized abortion.   
      
   Though no pro-abortion Republican has been nominated for president since   
   Gerald Ford in 1976, Giuliani is playing well to GOP voters because of   
   his handling of the September 11 terrorist attacks.   
      
   That may be all many voters know about the former mayor.   
      
   A new Fox News poll released yesterday finds that only 42 percent of GOP   
   voters correctly identified Giuliani as pro-abortion. Some 21 percent   
   say he's pro-life and another 36 percent don't know where he stands.   
      
   Giuliani's high poll numbers will likely drop once more voters find out   
   he supports abortion.   
      
   That's because the poll showed 46 percent of GOP voters are less likely   
   to support a pro-abortion candidate -- with 36% a lot less likely and 10   
   percent somewhat less likely. Only 22 percent are more likely to support   
   an abortion advocate.   
      
   That means nearly half of the people who will make the decision at the   
   ballot box in early 2008 as to who will represent the Republican Party   
   in the next election will be less inclined to back Giuliani and about 60   
   percent of GOP voters have yet to find out that he supports abortion.   
      
   Those numbers could be why Giuliani has been soft-peddling his   
   pro-abortion stance in recent media interviews.   
      
   During a CNN interview this week where he said he was definitely running   
   for president, he tried to play down his pro-abortion views.   
      
   "I am pro-choice, but I am also, as you know, against abortion. Hate   
   abortion. Never liked it,'' Giuliani said.   
      
   He indicated he thought GOP voters could support him based on other   
   issues.   
      
   "There is understanding that you can't find a candidate you agree with   
   100 percent of the time," Giuliani said. "I think they will vote for a   
   candidate based on leadership.''   
      
   Giuliani has always been in favor of legalized abortion -- even   
   supporting the grisly partial-birth abortion procedure that kills an   
   unborn child halfway through the birthing process.   
      
   But, on the Fox news program Hannity & Colmes last week, he used some   
   pretty strong language against abortion, though he admitted he still is   
   pro-abortion when it comes to whether it should be legal.   
      
   "Where I stand on abortion is, I oppose it. I don't like it. I hate it.   
   I think abortion is something that, as a personal matter, I would advise   
   somebody against," he said.   
      
   "However, I believe in a woman's right to choose," Giuliani admitted. "I   
   think ultimately you have to leave that to a disagreement of conscience   
   and you have to respect the choice that somebody makes."   
      
   The former mayor tried to reassure pro-life advocates by saying he would   
   appoint judges in the mold of the ones President Bush nominated and   
   pro-life advocates supported.   
      
   "I think the appointment of judges that I would make would be very   
   similar to, if not exactly the same as, the last two judges that were   
   appointed," Giuliani said.   
      
   "If I had been president over the last four years, I can't think of any,   
   you know, that I'd do anything different with that," he said, referring   
   to Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.   
      
   "I would appoint judges that interpreted the Constitution rather than   
   invented it, understood the difference between being a judge and being a   
   legislator," he said. "I do think you have sort of a general   
   philosophical approach that you want from a justice, and I think a   
   strict constructionist would be probably the way I'd describe it."   
      
   On the program, Giuliani was asked about partial-birth abortions. He   
   previously told CNN's Inside Politics in a 1999 interview, that he does   
   not support even a modest ban on the gruesome partial-birth abortion   
   procedure saying, "No, I have not supported that, and I don't see my   
   position on that changing."   
      
   Yet, on the Fox News show, Giuliani said that he supports a ban on   
   partial-birth abortion as long as there is a provision to protect the   
   life of the mother.   
      
   "If it has provision for the life of the mother, then I would support   
   it," he told the Fox News program.   
      
   Giuliani also said he supported parental notification laws as long as   
   their is a judicial bypass for cases when a teenager is abused by her   
   parents.   
      
   "I think you have to have a judicial bypass. If you do, you can have   
   parental notification," he said.   
      
   Will these concessions and apparent flip-flop on partial-birth abortion   
   be enough to gain the support of pro-life advocates?   
      
   Connie Mackey, senior vice president of the legislative arm of the   
   Family Research Council says no.   
      
   There are some who say, ŒWell, all we need from Giuliani, for instance,   
   is a promise that he¹ll put in a judge that will be a good   
   constitutionalist,¹" she told Congressional Quarterly on Friday. "And we   
   would disagree with that.²   
      
   Richard Land, the Chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention¹s Ethics   
   and Religious Liberty Convention, agrees.   
      
   Land said ³the vast majority² of pro-life voters will not vote for the   
   former mayor even if he gets the nomination.   
      
   --   
   Support the troops:  Bring them home ASAP.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)