At a town hall meeting in Savannah, Georgia, Rudy Giuliani faced several questions on gun control as well as pro-life issues, Russ Bynum reports for the Associated Press:
Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, a strong proponent of gun control during his years as New York mayor, told a Southern audience Friday that he supports the constitutional right to bear arms.
During a town-hall style meeting, Giuliani focused on combatting terrorism, cutting taxes and ending illegal immigration. Several in the audience of some 200 raised questions about issues at the forefront for some conservative Southerners: gun rights and embryonic stem-cell research."It doesn't matter if I believe in it or not -- and I do -- it is the Second Amendment," Giuliani said. "I'm a strict constructionist. The Second Amendment says you have an individual right to bear arms."
The full report is at the above link. Giuliani is doing the courageous thing in confronting his own record in the South, probably the region most concerned with 2nd Amendment issues - and the region most critical to winning Presidential elections in modern times. So far, his candor is playing well, and he will need a strong showing in early Southern primaries to demonstrate he can unite the party despite his moderate-to-liberal past on social issues.
No Democrat has ever been elected without winning at least three states of the old Confederacy - and only Bill Clinton has done it with only three. However, in the present balance of partisan power in the states, no Republican will be able to win without winning nearly all of them. Bush swept the South in both 2000 and 2004, for instance, but managed only narrow Electoral College victories each time.
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Filed under:
2008 Presidential Race, Primaries, Republican, Rudy
Tags: Giuliani, presidential campaign, primaries, Republicans
Comments (1)
Seems to me that Rudy is pa... (Below threshold)1. Posted by Flint | July 7, 2007 11:31 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Seems to me that Rudy is pandering down in the South.
If I was in the audience and he fed the BS line of "I'm a strict constructionist. The Second Amendment says you have an individual right to bear arms."
I'd reply by saying "then why do you support gun control?" "Why as a mayor were you strongly in favor of gun control?"
Then I'd follow up by asking "do you think gun control laws keep guns out of the hands of criminals and those who plan on breaking the law?"
And watch him squirm.
Everybody is so quick to point out Romney's flip-flops - why are they not doing the same about Rudy?
1. Posted by Flint | July 7, 2007 11:31 PM |
Score: 0 (0 votes cast)
Posted on July 7, 2007 23:31