Giuliani to Admit His Pro Choice Stance

With revelations this week of his contributions to Planned Parenthood, Rudy Giuliani has decided to campaign as a pro-choice Republican.

After months of conflicting signals on abortion, Rudolph W. Giuliani is planning to offer a forthright affirmation of his support for abortion rights in public forums, television appearances and interviews in the coming days, despite the potential for bad consequences among some conservative voters already wary of his views, aides said yesterday.

He hopes to de-emphasize the results in early primary states, such as Iowa and South Carolina, where his pro choice stance will have a very negative impact and instead focus on the mega primaries of Feb 5, 2008. He is hoping that the large, more moderate states like NY, NJ, Florida and California can propel him to the nomination.

The shift in emphasis comes as the Giuliani campaign has struggled to deal with the fallout from the first Republican presidential candidate debate, in which he gave halting and apparently contradictory responses to questions about his support for abortion rights.

Mr. Giuliani’s aides were concerned both because the responses opened him up to a new round of criticism from abortion critics, who have never been happy with the prospect of a Republican presidential candidate who supports abortion rights, while threatening to undercut his image as a tough-talking iconoclast who does not equivocate on tough issues.

The campaign’s approach would be a sharp departure from the traditional route to the Republican nomination in the last 20 years, in which Republicans have highlighted their antiabortion views.

Will he also reverse his stance on gay rights? While he was Mayor he was a strong supporter of the Gay Community and actually lived with a Gay couple after his second marriage ended. Somehow I doubt he will go that far and instead will throw his gay friends under the bus.