Rudy Giuliani’s Appearance Before the Value Voters: A Mixed Bag

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


rudy_giuliani_drag.jpg Rudy Giuliani just faced his toughest crowd of the campaign to date. After some waffling early in the campaign, Giuliani has been honest about his pro-choice and pro-gay rights beliefs. In so doing, he’s written off the folks who are likely to attend the Family Research Council’s Washington Briefing (aka the Value Voters Summit).

So how did Rudy handle the situation? Unimpressively. He spent as much time apologizing for not pandering to the crowd on abortion and gay rights as he did making the case for why he ought to be the next president of the United States. Let’s dig in.

Rudy started by saying, “I’ve come here to speak to you about our shared values and our shared goals. What unites us is far greater than what divides us.” Any suspicion that he would ignore the tension between his positions and the crowd’s by raving about “Islamic fascism” went out the window immediately.

Early in the speech, he said, “Christians and Christianity are all about inclusiveness.” He went on to explain the early Christians drew people to the faith by accepting doubters, sinners, and outcasts. There are two reasons why this is a dicey line of rhetoric. First, Rudy explaining Christian history to some of America’s most devout Christians is kind of insane. In addition to sounding unauthentic, he had no room for error. Second, it’s unclear if he was trying to say that the crowd here ought to accept him (as a candidate that doesn’t “check their boxes”), or that the crowd here ought to accept gays, immigrants, and other folks that these Christians don’t like so much. Either way, he’s telling these folks how to improve themselves, which is a bit presumptuous, no?

Giuliani explained that because he too often finds himself failing his moral and religious beliefs, he is reluctant to hold himself up as a model of faith. And that he comes from a background that keeps religion out of public life. Despite that, he said, “You have nothing to fear from me.” That’s a pretty stunning statement for any presidential candidate to make.

Few campaigns are won on the defensive, but that’s where Rudy found himself. “Isn’t it better that I tell you what I really believe,” he said, “than to change all my positions to fit the prevailing wind?” It isn’t leadership in any meaningful sense to pander, he explained, and so, if you’ll forgive him, he’s not going to pander to you. But don’t write him off as a result. “Ronald Reagan said, ‘My 80 percent friend is not my 100 percent enemy,'” Rudy pointed out. To rephrase that: “I know we don’t agree 20 percent of the time, but please don’t hate me as a result.” The unspoken but universally acknowledged truth here is that the 20 percent on which Rudy and the crowd disagree are the 20 percent that are most important to the crowd.

Giuliani can talk about his support for increasing adoptions, for decreasing abortions, for appointing strict constructionist judges, he can say things like, “My belief in God and reliance on his guidance is at the core of who I am,” and he can talk on and on about how he will always be honest if not perfect on the issues, but in the end none of that is going to be good enough. Running for president doesn’t mean convincing the American voting public to vote for you. It means convincing the dozens, if not hundreds, of single-issue groups that make up the American voting public to vote for you. And this is one Rudy’s just not going to get.

The folks here have been voting in a straw poll all weekend. They’ll announce the winner after the presumptive favorite, Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, speaks this afternoon. I, of course, will be here.

Do I get combat pay for this?

Update: The good news: no phone call.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate