The following editorial appeared in The Dallas Morning News on Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2004.
Monday night’s address was, we suspect, the first speech of Rudy Giuliani’s 2008 presidential campaign.
No one is as closely associated with all that is noble and heroic about this nation’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks as the former New York mayor, who was the indispensable American on that evil day. Said Roy Jenkins, the Winston Churchill biographer, “What Giuliani succeeded in doing is what Churchill succeeded in doing in the dreadful summer of 1940: He managed to create an illusion that we were bound to win.”
Giuliani mentioned Churchill last night as an example of bold leadership that transcends partisan loyalties. Said the former mayor, “There are many qualities that make a great leader, but having strong beliefs, being able to stick with them through popular and unpopular times, is the most important characteristic of a great leader.”
Giuliani was talking about President Bush, but that’s a fair description of himself.
What holds Giuliani back within the national GOP, though, are his socially libertarian views on gay rights and abortion- – two concerns vital to religious and social conservatives who make up the party’s base.
We believe the mayor has the right stance on those and many other issues, but if he wants to be the Republican presidential nominee, he’s got to find a way to make these key GOP constituencies comfortable with him.
That’s going to be a real test of his leadership. As it will be with John McCain, who also spoke Monday night, should he wish to succeed George W. Bush. Like Giuliani, the tough-guy senator has lots of crossover appeal.
Though McCain is more socially conservative than the mayor, there is an ocean of bad blood separating him from the religious right.
Yet religious and social conservatives also have to face facts: The GOP must broaden its appeal if it wants to hold presidential power at all in the future.
Though support for some restrictions on abortion is on the rise, backing for legislation perceived as anti-gay drops off dramatically with younger voters. Plus, demographic changes are rapidly increasing the pool of Democratic voters.
Despite mainstream popularity, neither Giuliani nor McCain can win the GOP nomination with opposition from the party’s culture hawks. On the other hand, social and religious conservatives would see their influence drastically curtailed under a Democratic president.
If Republicans want to win instead of be ideologically pure, this week in New York ought to occasion some pragmatic fellowshipping. (c) 2004, The Dallas Morning News.

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