While the Democratic party romps all over the media, well-slept and neatly dressed, the Republican party has emerged into the 2008 campaign looking absolutely knackered. (Having said that, it has long been clear that the Democrats couldn't pump a bullet into the GOP if they were given a free shot from three inches away.) Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House, has suggested that the only hope for the GOP in 2008 would be a revolution within the party. The public's negative view of current party leaders means that prospective presidential candidates have to bill themselves as Republican mavericks: viable opponents to both the Democratic party AND the Bush administration. With that in mind, The Monocle invites you to meet just one of the good men up for the job of All-New Republican President.
Heeeere's Rudy! Former Mayor of New York City Rudolph 'zero tolerance' Giuliani, famous for bigging up the rotten apple, is striding ahead. Rudy's finest moment, pottering about in the ashes of the World Trade Centre with a megaphone, whuumphed him right into the status of Legend. Rudy's a bit of a conundrum: for a presidential candidate, he's not so hot on family values. Currently married to his third wife, he is estranged from his grown-up son, and has yet to come down properly on either side of the abortion fence. While the idea of a pro-choice Republican candidate got the religious right's knickers in quite a twist, Giuliani has, disappointingly, backpedalled furiously on the issue. in 1989 he said "There must be public funding for abortions for poor women. We cannot deny any woman the right to make her own decision about abortion because she lacks resources." Unfortch, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE Rudolph Giuliani feels a little differently: "States should make their decision. Some states decide to do it, most states decide not to do it. And I think that's the appropriate way to have this decided." Oh well. With the McCain campaign being whaled up and down by a series of resignations and accusations of wild financial fumbling, Rudy has emerged, thus far, as the only real contender, apart from Mitt Romney, and MITT ROMNEY IS A MORMON, PEOPLE, A MORMON. (That is not a typo.) Can he shake off the slightly seedy aura of a thrice-married New Yorker in time to win over the Republican base?
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