Home
In this issue
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 30, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality
Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America
Oct. 29, 2009
Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity?
JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 28, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland
JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes)
Oct. 27, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static
JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 26, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist
JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 23, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure?
JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us
Oct. 22, 2009
Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans
JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes)
Oct. 21, 2009
Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies'
JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 20, 2009
Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President
JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes)
Oct. 19, 2009
JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes)
Oct. 16, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number
JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost
Oct. 15, 2009
Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process'
JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review May 21, 2007 / 4 Sivan, 5767

Giuliani wins, Romney loses, Huckabee gains

By Dick Morris & Eileen Mc Gann


Printer Friendly Version
Email this article

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | To understand the presidential debate on Tuesday night in South Carolina, think of a tennis tournament. There are quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals.


The GOP debate featured two quarter final matches. In the left court, battling for the moderate Republican nomination, were Rudy Giuliani and John McCain. In the right court, competing for the conservative Republican nomination, were the seven card-carrying conservatives — Romney, Huckabee, Brownback, Gilmore, Hunter, Tancredo and Thompson — as well as the two candidates who weren't even there, Fred Thompson and Newt Gingrich.


The winner of the Giuliani-McCain match and the nine-way conservative quarter finals will meet in the semi-finals on February 5, 2008, in America's first ever national primary.


Rudy won against McCain in straight sets by his brilliant focus on terrorism. When he looked around the stage and said, "I really think that I have more experience with security issues than anyone on this platform," the debate was effectively over. McCain's obtuse answer about what he called torture, and what the others called aggressive interrogation, helped seal his fate that night. Does McCain really believe that al Qaeda will exercise restraint if we don't waterboard terror suspects?


But the most interesting contest on Tuesday night was among the seven pygmies trying to get into the first tier and to pre-empt Thompson and Gingrich from running.


Entering the debate, the front-r unner in this match was Mitt Romney. This should have been Romney's time to make a move. He had $12 million in the bank as of March 31. He got the cover of Time Magazine, a segment on "60 Minutes," and he's already buying ads on the FOX News Channel. Some national polls show him finally breaking into double digits for the first time.


But FOX News' Wendell Golar pinned Romney's ears back with his aggressive questioning, challenging him on his history of flip-flop-flips over abortion. Like many Mormons, Romney was pro-choice as he entered politics, but, when facing a race for Senator against Ted Kennedy, and then a contest for governor of Massachusetts, he trimmed his sails and tacked to the left, coming out for choice. "I will protect a woman's right to choose," he opined. Romney says that his change was driven by the tragedy of a relative who died following an illegal abortion, but many suspect him, of an "even numbered year conversion," as McCain put it.


Then, when he decided to run for the Republican nomination for president, he had another conversion ... this time back to pro-life. Again, this switch was not caused by any political consideration, but by his work on stem cell research which convinced him that we are too ready to dispose of embryos and human life.


Nobody with half a brain will buy his story that these flips and flops were not politically motivated.


Now, with Romney — impaired in his mission to become "The Great Right Hope" — taking on the winner of Giuliani-McCain, who will fill the void on the right? If not Romney, do we need to wait for Fred Thompson or Newt Gingrich? But as Fred dithers and Newt delays, the vacuum becomes more galling. Enter Arkansas' Mike Huckabee with a stellar debate performance.


When Huckabee compared Democratic spending to John Edwards at a hair salon, he cracked everyone up. When he spoke of the commitment to human life that animates us when hikers are lost on Mt. Hood, or miners are stuck in a coal mine, or a child is lost in the woods, and compared it with our lack of concern for the fetus in the womb, he spoke to the heart of the conservative viewers.


But, beyond his substance, Huckabee (disclosure: a former client) showed an ability to turn a phrase that ranks with Reagan and Clinton. He was able to communicate so well that he stood out in the pack.


Huckabee has a long way to rise, and Romney has a long way to fall, before the Arkansan could become "The Great Right Hope" — but he is doing very well in the early going of the quarter final.


Was anybody watching? You bet. Two million viewers tuned in. And if that doesn't sound like a lot, consider that the total turnout in the Republican primaries will probably not top seven million!

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.


JWR contributor Dick Morris is author, most recently, of "Because He Could". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.) Comment by clicking here.



Dick Morris Archives


© 2007, Dick Morris

Insight (Our Columnists)

 Arnold Ahlert
 Mitch Albom
 Michael Barone
  Dave Barry
 Tony Blankley
 Andy Borowitz
 David Broder
 Stratfor Briefing
 Mona Charen
 Linda Chavez
 Ann Coulter
 Greg Crosby
 Larry Elder
 Suzanne Fields
 John Fund
 Frank J. Gaffney
 Lloyd Garver
 Jonah Goldberg
 Julia Gorin
 Jonathan Gurwitz
 Paul Greenberg
 Lewis Grossberger
 Victor Davis Hanson
 Betsy Hart
 Nat Hentoff
 David Horowitz
 Laura Ingraham
 Cheri Jacobus
Jeff Jacoby
 Paul Johnson
 Jack Kelly
 Ed Koch
 Ch. Krauthammer
 Michael Ledeen
 John Leo
 David Limbaugh
 Kathryn Lopez
 Rich Lowry
 Michelle Malkin
 Jackie Mason
 Dick Morris
 Bill O'Reilly
 Jim Mullen
 Clarence Page
 Kathleen Parker
 Dennis Prager
 Wesley Pruden
 Tom Purcell
 Jonathan Rauch
 Celia Rivenbark
 Robert Robb
 Cokie & Steve Roberts
 Pat Sajak
 Debra J. Saunders
 Culture Shlock
 Roger Simon
 Michael Smerconish
 Thomas Sowell
 Mark Steyn
 John Stossel
 Cal Thomas
 Bob Tyrrell
 Diana West
 Dave Weinbaum
 George Will
 Walter Williams
 Byron York
 Mort Zuckerman

'Toons
 Robert Arial
 Chuck Asay
 Baloo
 Chip Bok
 Dry Bones
  Lisa Benson
 John Branch
 Gary Brookins
 John Cole
 J. D. Crowe
 John Deering
 Brian Duffy
 Everything's Relative
 Mallard Fillmore
 Jake Fuller
 Bob Gorrel
 Joe Heller
 David Hitch
 Jerry Holber
 Steve Kelley
 Jeff Koterba
 Dick Locher
 Chan Lowe
 Ranan R. Lurie
 Jimmy Margulies
 Rick McKee
 Michael Ramirez
 Kevin Siers
 Jeff Stahler
 Ed Stein
 Danna Summers
 John Trever
 Gary Varvel
 Kirk Walters

Lifestyles
 How 2
 Lori Borgman
 The Savvy Consumer
 Elder matters
 Fixit
 Dr. Peter Gott
 GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko
 Richard Lederer
 Tech Maven
 Every Monday Matters
 Nutrition Myths
 Bookmark These
 Bruce Williams
 How Stuff Works