In case you hadn't noticed, Rudy Giuliani is leading all the polls in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
This is scary to me.
Given the likelihood of Hillary Clinton winning the Democratic nomination, Americans like me would have no choice. We'd be completely disfranchised from the presidential election. We would be morally prevented from voting for either major party candidate.
The good news is there's still time to stop Rudy.
My objections to Rudy are hardly confined to the issue of abortion. In fact, besides our shared passion for the New York Yankees, I can think of precious little on which I agree with Giuliani. But let's examine his extreme position in favor of killing unborn babies for any and every reason imaginable.
Giuliani began his campaign for the presidency by attempting to moderate his position on the life issue. He told nationally syndicated radio host Sean Hannity he favored parental consent laws, he opposed public funding of abortion, he opposed partial-birth abortion, he favored the appointment of strict constructionists to the U.S. Supreme Court.
All of this was meant to tickle the ears of soft-headed Republicans. It was meant to portray Giuliani as something other than an extremist, a zealot, the same so-called "Republican" who refused to support a moderate Republican candidate for governor of New York in favor of Mario Cuomo.
Giuliani even suggested his positions on the abortion issue had been consistent all along – that he was not modifying his stances in an effort to attract pro-life voters.
But, in this age of the Internet, there is just no hiding past positions on issues.
Indeed, Rudy has been consistent – consistently pro-abortion.
While saying he is personally opposed to abortion and thinks we should discourage it, he advocates every imaginable incentive for women to have them – discouraging laws requiring women to see ultra-sound images of their in utero babies before crushing their skulls, discouraging any cut in taxpayer funding of abortions and describing this hideous, abominable procedure as a "constitutional right."
I don't believe Rudy Giuliani is really personally opposed to abortion. I don't think he cares a whit about unborn babies. And, even if I am misjudging his heart, it really doesn't matter what he thinks. What matters is what he does, how he acts.
What would you think of someone who said he personally opposed slavery, would never own a slave himself, but fought fervently for the right of others to own slaves.
Would you believe that person is really opposed to slavery? Would you care that he was "personally opposed"? Would you grasp that this person was trying to have it both ways on one of the most crucial moral issues men can possibly ever face?
Here's what Giuliani said in 2000 on the subject of banning partial-birth abortions: "I would vote to preserve the option for women."
I believe that was the real Giuliani. That was a reflection of his heart and mind on this issue. He would preserve the option for women to kill their babies even at the very moment of delivery – when the child is "viable" in every sense of the word. This is a position even more extreme than the one taken by the muddled thinkers who gave us Roe v. Wade.
This is why I can never, under any circumstances, cast a vote for Rudy Giuliani as president, no matter whom he is running against.
He's unfit. He's immoral. He's got no standard of right and wrong guiding him. His positions are indecent, disgusting and abominable.
If he can't be trusted on a relatively simple issue of life and death, he can't be trusted on anything in my book.
We still have time to ensure that we have a real presidential contest in 2008. We still have time to ensure that Republicans offer us an alternative to Hillary Clinton in 2008. We still have time to find an alternative to Rudy Giuliani in 2008.
Let's get busy. We've got our work cut out for us. It's time to jump off this Giuliani bandwagon.
Take the pledge with me: "Under no circumstances will I cast a vote for Rudy Giuliani as president, no matter whom he is running against."
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