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Religious Right's tough call

If not Giuliani, who? Christian conservatives remain unsettled on a GOP champion for '08 race.

By Linda Feldmann | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the October 22, 2007 edition

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WASHINGTON - After two days of wooing by all the Republican presidential candidates, religious conservatives appear no more in agreement on whom to support than they did going in.

The good news, said some of the 2,500 attendees at the Values Voter Summit organized by the Family Research Council, is that most of the GOP candidates share their views on the bedrock issues of the movement: opposition to abortion rights and support for traditional marriage.

The bad news is that the strongest Republican in national polls, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, is not with them on those issues. And if religious conservatives fail to coalesce around one of the "anti-Giulianis," his chances of getting the nomination rise dramatically – and their issues, they fear, will be off the table. With the next president likely to replace two or more Supreme Court justices, including some who support abortion rights, the opportunity of a generation to overturn the nationwide right to abortion, established in Roe v. Wade, could be lost.

The next dilemma comes if Mr. Giuliani does get the nomination. Do they vote for him or even help his campaign anyway?

Some attendees would not discuss the "what ifs" of a Giuliani on the general-election ballot, instead expressing hope that another Republican rises to the top. But they agreed that either staying home or voting for a third-party candidate is, in effect, a vote for the Democrat.

"When Giuliani gave his speech, I almost cried," says Dale O'Leary, an author from Avon Park, Fla. "I would vote for him if he were pro-life…. It's a very scary time for us."

Mrs. O'Leary counts herself among those who will still turn out to vote even if the Republicans nominate Giuliani. "Not voting is a vote for her," she says, referring to Democratic frontrunner Hillary Rodham Clinton.

For Giuliani, the challenge of his speech on Saturday was to emphasize areas in which he and social conservatives – a core constituency of the Republican base – share common ground and then reassure them as best he could on areas of disagreement.

"I come to you today as I would if I were president, with an open mind and an open heart, and all I ask is that you do the same," Giuliani said, speaking for 40 minutes, twice his allotted time.

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