Rudy's On A Train To Nowhere...

...halfway down the line:

So, will Giuliani's "The-war-on-terror-trumps-all-else" message resonate with pro-life conservatives?

No, and here's why.


EVEN GRANTING THAT THE WAR on terror is paramount and that Rudy Giuliani would be our most effective wartime leader (both dubious assumptions), the theory assumes that if Giuliani does not receive the GOP presidential nomination, whoever ends up winning it will be significantly worse when it comes to protecting America from terrorist attacks.

This assumption is incorrect, of course. If Giuliani does not become the Republican Party's nominee, the candidate Republicans do choose will be at worst only marginally worse on the issue of fighting terrorism. In other words, there are no candidates who support terrorism, or even any serious candidates who do not take terrorism very seriously. When it comes to protecting America from terrorist attacks, then, if we do not get Rudy, we will get somebody nearly as strong.

On abortion, however, the positions of the GOP presidential candidates aren't quite so monolithic. While some view abortion as the intentional taking of an innocent human life -- akin to murder -- Giuliani views it as a constitutional right that ought to be allowed at almost any time during pregnancy, for any reason at all -- and often at taxpayers' expense. This puts Giuliani at the opposite end of the spectrum from other GOP presidential candidates on the protection of innocent human life in the womb.

To put it another way, if, on a scale from one to ten, Giuliani can be considered a "ten" on terrorism (with "ten" representing the ideal hard-line stance against terror and "one" representing a pro-terror position), it is also true that on the right to life (with "ten" representing the most pro-life position and "one" representing the most anti-life position), Giuliani receives, to be charitable, a "two." This gives him, on the issues of terror and human life, a total score of "twelve," which puts him well behind any pro-life conservative candidate, who, while receiving a "nine" or "ten" on the right to life, would also surely receive no less than an "eight" or "nine" on terror.

So, what would a Giuliani presidency look like for pro-life conservatives who believe America is threatened by the twin scourges of abortion and Islamic terrorism? A Giuliani presidency would perhaps protect America from the scourge of Islamic terror, but it would also perpetuate and reaffirm a scourge that has already taken the lives of over 50 million innocents. Social conservatives can, and must, do better.

Of course, this is true for the GOP primary. The trouble comes if Giuliani goes head-to-head in the general election with an Appeaser-in-Chief candidate like Hillary or Obama. Then his 10 in the War on Terror looks awfully good compared to their 2s, and pro-lifers will have to choose between the lives of the born and unborn.

This is what 8 years of compassionate conservatism has brough us to.