Conservatives Want to Be Wooed

Even conservative Rudy-skeptics are practically begging him to make the case. Here's what Mark Davis has to say in the pages of the Dallas Morning News: [UPDATE: I just noticed the tight borders line -- is Rudy getting right with the base on immigration?]

As for Mr. Giuliani, I used to say that he won't run and couldn't win if he did. The gay-friendly, abortion-rights-supporting ex-New York mayor whose legacy includes an embrace of gun control? It would seem highly unlikely.

Unless you were in a room with me at the Hotel Crescent Court last month as the Dallas County Republican Party welcomed Mr. Giuliani to a fundraiser also heralding local congressional candidates.

I served as master of ceremonies, and there was a thoroughly polite welcome for the GOP primary survivors who will try to unseat Reps. Eddie Bernice Johnson and Chet Edwards.

But it was Mr. Giuliani who put a room of Reagan-loving red-staters into a positive swoon.

He did it with steadfast support for the Bush war doctrine, coupled with a passion for tight borders that even the still-admired incumbent cannot muster. He did it with strong fiscal conservatism, another Bush weakness. And he did it with a passionate pitch for school choice, an issue Republicans have neglected - mysteriously, since scads of Republicans and Democrats want it.

His content was great. His style was even better. His sharp wit and off-the-cuff comfort are miles beyond the average glazed, scripted politician. He sports a good-natured partisan streak that puts him a head above Mr. McCain, who seems to gag on any sentence suggesting that a Democrat might be wrong. ...

I don't know yet whether I can be a Rudy voter, but I'd enjoy watching him try to make me one.

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