Rudy Giuliani — the GOP’s Barack Obama

Having gone through the health care siege of 1994, Hillary remains world-wise and wary about advocating an immediate move to universal national health care. She knows the political risks and lectures Democrats on them. In Iraq, she stops short of advocating an immediate withdrawal, citing her fears that the resulting chaos would make the situation far worse. She cites her experience as first lady for the proposition that she knows the pressures of the Oval Office.

McCain’s version of the “responsibility gene” is his steadfast support of the president’s troop “surge,” which McCain had long advocated. On economics, he’s trying to woo supply-siders by calling for tax cuts, but he won’t entirely abandon his old concerns about the deficit. And if we are looking for a better commander-in-chief, who better than someone who knows the military and Pentagon from the inside? Few leaders in Washington know those institutions better than McCain does.

The Base-Wooers
Two “formers” — former Sen. John Edwards and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney — are taking the same strategic approach. Both are moving as fast as they can to ingratiate themselves with the ideological bases of their respective parties. Each is moving to the “wing” position, using all of their considerable charm to do so.

No one is wooing organized labor harder than Edwards. Reared in a North Carolina mill-worker’s family, he was never a flat-out free trader, but he is more skeptical of that position now - which is where most union voters would want him to be. He wants national health care NOW, even if that means raising taxes (also a labor position). He is going to compete - hard - for the black vote, and showed his commitment to doing so by launching his campaign in the 9th Ward of New Orleans.

Romney is doing the same thing in the opposite ideological direction. A supporter of abortion rights as recently as 2002, he has a different view now, for example, as he tries to open a dialogue with the evangelical Christians who are to the GOP what the unions are to the Democrats.

And by the way, on the question of whether Rudy could win the nomination? My answer is “yep.”

Picking the president — the candidates Click a name below to visit that candidate’s MSNBC page • Joe Biden                 • Sam Brownback     • Hillary Clinton          • Chris Dodd • John Edwards         • Rudy Giuliani           • Mike Gravel              • Duncan Hunter • Mike Huckabee        • Dennis Kucinich     • John McCain           • Barack Obama • Ron Paul                    • Bill Richardson      • Mitt Romney            • Tom Tancredo • Fred Thompson To subscribe to a candidate page RSS feed, click here.

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