May 03, 2007
GOP Debate Preview: Making The Introductions
Just as it did for the first nationally televised Democratic debate last week, MSNBC has been on full-court promo all day for tonight's Republican candidate meet-up. While all the excitement preceding last week's debate concerned whether Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama would directly attack each other for the first time (they didn't), the buzz today is all about how pack-leaders Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney will perform.
(The Gate will be liveblogging the debate beginning at 7:45 p.m. EDT.)
Most Americans are familiar with Giuliani, owing to his performance in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks as former mayor of New York. But there is a significant disconnect between what New Yorkers know of Giuliani and the rest of the nation's impression of him. Those who've watched Giuliani butt heads with his former police commissioner, the black community, his ex-wives, and ferret owners, are for the most part waiting for the other loafer to drop on the Brooklyn native's presidential bid.
Giuliani's challenge tonight is convincing voters that counterterrorism is this nation's no. 1 priority, and his hands-on experience in that arena, coupled with his having restored order to what was the most unruly city in the nation, qualify him to be commander in chief -- personal issues be damned.
Giuliani tops nearly every national poll on the GOP field by a cushy margin, indicating many Republican primary voters either aren't aware of his pro-choice and gay-friendly social platforms or that those positions aren't a dealbreaker. If Giuliani wins the nomination, surveys also show that he may have an edge over everyone in the Democratic field.
Romney's woes are almost the polar opposite of Giuliani's. A CBS News survey last month revealed a dramatic majority of GOP primary voters know almost nothing about him. And the information that is getting out there most -- that he is a Mormon -- isn't sitting well with the public.
Then, there's John McCain. The one-time presumptive nominee has seen his presidential dreams sputter. Many conservatives do agree with his still-strident support for the Iraq war, but they have long distrusted him -- he lost the nomination to President Bush in 2000 despite achieving political superstardom. And the other two-thirds of the country who oppose Bush and the war don't find in McCain the change in the nation's direction that they crave.
The Republican field this cycle is much more unstable than the Democrats', and the so-called second tier candidates will try to take advantage of that. Expect Sen. Sam Brownback, former Governors Jim Gilmore, Mike Huckabee and Tommy Thompson, and Reps. Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo to hold the front-runners to account on abortion, marriage, immigration and trade.
And let's not forget Ron Paul, the Texas libertarian in the mix. His bid is a long shot, but count on the outspoken congressman to call the candidates out on their support for the war.
Finally, readers on the grounds of Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., may want to keep an eye out for another candidate, businessman John Cox. Cox is protesting his exclusion from tonight's events, and plans to stand outside the library as the 10 men he hopes to beat fight for air time inside.
Posted at 6:15 PM
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Republicans, WH 2008
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