RateItAll: The Opinion Network

The million dollar question here isn't whether or not Giuliani's moderate views on abortion or gay rights will hinder his path to the nomination. It certainly may become a factor if he doesn't handle it right, the bigger issue here might have to do with some of his business dealings and with his 2 divorces, one, with Donna Hanover a few years ago became a bit of a scandal. If he can overcome some of these things, he stands a good shot of getting elected President, especially if the Democrats nominate Hillary. My concern with Giuliani is his lack of foreign policy experience. He doesn't seem too comfortable handling questions fielded from that direction, and when he does, his answers don't make any sense. He recently claimed that he supported a troop escalation policy in Iraq because hiring more policemen in New York during the 1990's helped reduce petty crime in the city. Come on now! Iraq is a country ripped apart by sectarian violence; we're not talking about the squeegee men on 43rd Street here. It is just as political as it is military. The security paradigm is completely different at that level. To express such an opinion about such an important matter really left me questioning his ability to be president. We already have a President with weak foreign policy credentials; this country doesn't need another President who needs to learn on the job. The Republicans best hope at securing the White House in 2008 is to nominate someone with a strong military and foreign policy record. Candidates like Chuck Hagel or Colin Powell would fit the bill here, and would be elected easily over whomever the Democrats have on the field now.

The best hope for the Republicans in 2008. He'll have a tough time convincing the social conservatives to give him the nomination though. If it came down to Hillary vs. Rudy, however, he'd probably win the election. Any other match-up and we'll almost certainly see a Democratic president in 2009.

I can see myself voting for Rudy. By the way, I love the unbiased description of this list...

Nope. This guy is too associated with 9/11 and most Americans just don't want to go there anymore. He's also from New York, which will turn off many middle-American small town moderate voters. "We don't like them big city folks no more!" Conservative hard liners will view him as being too far to the left on some key issues as well. He's also too much of a smoothie.

I always said the GOP would have to be pretty desperate to nominate a pro-choice candidate. But they may indeed be that desperate in 2008. He definately has the likability factor, but I'm not sure if he has enough foreign policy experience for my taste.