The sound you just heard is the crashing and burning of Rudy's presidential campaign.

After months of conflicting 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 the potential for bad 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 Republicans to nominate an abortion rights supporter — 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 Iowa and South Carolina.

That approach, they said, became more appealing after the Legislature in Florida, another state they said would be receptive to Mr. Giuliani, voted last week to move the primary forward to the end of January.

Now I'll be honest -- as much as I admire Rudy for many things, I've never been a big fan of his candidacy. His equivocation last week was troubling to me. This move simply turns me off to the campaign completely -- because it makes me wonder how much of his previous positioning on issues like judges is sincere. And the harder-line pro-lifers will sit home in 2008 rather than vote for him.

Expect a precipitous drop in the polls. And maybe a formal excommunication.

Posted by: Greg at 09:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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