Rudy: The Walking House of Lies; Republicans Like Him Only Because They Don't Know the Truth

Well, as a sort of New Yorker who knows, I guess I have to help enlighten them, even if they're not reality-based....

A few weeks ago, Gallup conducted a national poll and found that three out of four Republicans (74%) believe Giuliani would make an "acceptable" GOP presidential nominee. None of the other Republican hopefuls came close.

The conventional wisdom suggested that these results, mirrored in other polls, spoke to a key development in Republican politics. Despite Giuliani's support for abortion rights and gay rights as mayor, the GOP faithful apparently no longer consider his social positions a disqualifier in a presidential race.

But the conventional wisdom didn't consider one nagging detail: most Republicans don't know Giuliani's positions on the hot-button, culture-war issues that have driven GOP politics for a generation.

As Eric Kleefeld explained, the new poll from the Pew Research Center found that when Republicans and GOP-leaners "are asked if they can name the Republican presidential candidate who is pro-choice, only 41% could correct name Rudy Giuliani. Among self-described conservatives, the answer wasn't much better at a mere 47% correct."

This is similar to results of a Pew Research poll from June, when fewer than half of Republicans realized that Giuliani has always supported abortion rights.

I haven't seen any data on the subject, but I'd guess that an even higher percentage of the GOP probably doesn’t know that Giuliani supported gay rights and has a record as a thrice-married adulterer, either.

Maybe Republican voters care about this, maybe not. But for every poll that shows the former NYC mayor as the frontrunner, the political world should pause a moment to consider just how many of his supporters appreciate these details -- and how many are likely to hear about them from Giuliani's GOP rivals before voters head to the polls next year.

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