Free Markets = Free People

If their were any questions on Rudy's Free market credentials they have been answered by one other then The Free Market Leader of Our Time: Steve Forbes. I can not think of one endorsement who could bring more strength to the Rudy campaign, and I can not think of a better announcement then this awesome WSJ editorial. (here)

Rudy Giuliani is the real fiscal conservative in the 2008 presidential race.

That's why I'm endorsing him for president. Less well known is the mayor's fiscal record. Nonetheless, conservatives will find it impressive. He built New
York's resurgence not just on fundamental police work, but also on a foundation
of fiscal discipline. He cut taxes and the size of government and turned an
inherited deficit into a multibillion dollar surplus.

Mr. Giuliani entered office in 1994 with a $2.3 billion budget deficit handed to him by his predecessor, Mayor David Dinkins. Liberal conventional wisdom held that the only way to close the gap was to raise taxes while cutting back on basic city
services such as sanitation. The new mayor rejected this advice--in fact, he
famously threw the report recommending tax hikes in the trash! Instead, he set
out to restore fiscal discipline to the "ungovernable city"--and achieved
results that Reagan Republicans can applaud.

LIBERTARIAN POLITICS LIVE

Jim Sykes, Giuliani Campaign Media Spokesman will be the guest tonight on Blog Talk Radio's "Libertarian Politics Live." Eric Dondero and Co-Host Andre Traversa will question Sykes as to why Libertarians should support Rudy Giuliani for President. They will also ask him the tough questions Libertarians have been asking on gun rights, legalized prostitution, and the drug war.

I also maybe making an appearance today. You can listen live or archived, here!

The Northern Strategy

In today's Wall Street Journal(link) Brendan Miniter begs the question "Can the GOP become a national party again?". Apparently former governor Robert Ehrlich, is writing a book a called "Not Your Father's Republican Party." This is not one of those "we need to be a big tent" books but rather Ehrlich is advocating winning the North by: "Elect a strong leader. Don't shy away from taking on controversial issues, even those involving race. Return to economic and fiscally conservative principles. And 'never apologize when you're right.'" Ehrlich correctly realizes that we can't just be the party of the south if we want to remain a nationally competitive party. As many of you know, and as was reported here, Ehrlich endorsed Rudy Giuliani for president. Rudy is the perfect candidate for rebuilding the GOP as a national party. Rudy would advocate unapologetic libertarian ideals of free-market capitalism while putting states like PA, CA, NJ, and NY in play.

Rudy Giuliani with Larry Kudlow

Rudy had a great interview on Kudlow & Company and proved himself to be both knowledgeable and absolutely correct on the economic issues of our time. He did so well that Kudlow, a free-market hero, was singing his praises for the rest of the show. I will be looking to the interview on youtube but in till then here are some key quotes.

"(The government) needs to make it clear that we're going to extend the tax cuts, that it's not just a temporary thing, so people can look forward to long-term planning. The government needs to reign in spending. We haven't done that in a while in a concerted way and it seems to me that is how the federal budget can have the best impact on the private economy."

"Globalization and free market economics is the way to go for the United States. If we challenge ourselves, it gives us the hope for growth, and we should always be pointing towards growth."

"I started with a $2.3 billion deficit, and by lowering taxes we cleared that deficit and started building a pretty big surplus."

"If some mistakes were made in being too aggressive, that sometimes creates overinvestment and bad decisions. That's kind of a natural thing in a market, so I would rather have it correct itself rather than have Congress correct it. There (are) always going to be cycles … that's the nature of a free economy."

And They Just Keep Coming

Yesterday the Washington Post reported that Michigan state Rep. Jack Brandenburg, a former member of Romney's Michigan leadership team, endorsed Rudy for President. Brandenburg is a noted libertarian who was endorsed by the Republican Liberty Caucus Michigan Chapter. Elected libertarian republicans are hopping on the Rudy bang wagon for a reason, he is the best example of an electable libertarian candidate since Ronald Reagan.

"As the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, I think he single-handedly deserves the credit for breaking organized crime in New York. That took a lot of guts," Rep. Jack Brandenburg said. "As a mayor, he showed fiscal toughness. He's a real leader."

Race to be Endorsed

Now as many of the Romneybots would be happy to tell Rudy doesn't have nearly the same amount of congressional endorsements as Romney or even McCain. The Hill is currently keeping a tally, here. As of now Mitt Romney has 27, Sen. John McCain has 25, and our man Giuliani has only 11. This can be attributed to two reasons, 1) Rudy's relatively late start and 2) His beyond the beltway status with little to no congressional relationships. Still as my teachers always say, it is "quality not quantity". Talking a close look at Rudy's endorsements should comfort both libertarians and conservatives, since almost all of them have high scores on the Republican Liberty Caucus's Liberty Index. This is especially true for Rudy's most recent endorsement by Ed Royce, who is one of the biggest champions in the House for libertarian ideals. (Eric Dondero has more on Ed Royce, here)

Rudy's Endorsements (with RLC grade)
Pers% | Econ% | Comb% = Class
Rep. Mary Bono (R-Calif.) p: 55 e: 74 c: 64.6 = Enterpriser
Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.) p: 40 e: 80 c: 60.0 = Conservative
Rep. David Dreier (R-Calif.) p: 60 e: 79 c: 69.5 = Enterpriser
Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.) p: 57 e: 81 c: 69.1 = Enterpriser
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) p: 49 e: 66 c: 57.6 = Centrist
Rep. Candice Miller (R-Mich.) p: 42 e: 70 c: 55.9 = Conservative
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) p: 41 e: 78 c: 59.5 = Conservative
Rep. Ed Royce(R-Calif.) p: 64 e: 91 c: 77.1 = Libertarian
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) p: 61 e: 81 c: 70.8 = Enterpriser
Rep. David Vitter (R-La.) p: 61 e: 78 c: 69.7 = Enterpriser
Rep. Jim Walsh (R-N.Y. p: 47 e: 58 c: 52.7 = Centrist
Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. p: 60 e: 78 c: 69.1 = Enterpriser

LiberGraph Classifications
Libertarians advocate the maximum amount of Personal and Economic Liberty, consistent with the defense of individual rights. Fiscally conservative yet socially tolerant, libertarians favor lower taxes, free trade, individual rights and limited government.

Enterprisers advocate a moderate amount of Personal and Economic Liberty, with "good" government programs. Enterprises usually support free markets and usually oppose restrictions on individual civil liberties.

Centrists advocate compromise on all issues of Personal and Economic Liberty, prefering to avoid any partisan or principled positions. Centrists tend to support any "middle-of-the-road" position between the "left-right" and "liberty-tyranny" political spectrums.

Conservatives advocate a large amount of Economic Liberty, but favor a large government role in social issues. Conservatives usually support free markets, private enterprise, strong police powers and cultural norms in social behavior.

2 New Polls

Two new polls came out, one is a insiders poll from the National Journal and the other is a straw poll from Ohio.

The insider poll asked 82 beltway democrats who would be the strongest Republican in the general election. The results:
March 2007 December 2006
Rudy 39% Rudy 12%
Romney 20% Romney 11%
McCain 17% McCain 73%
Thompson 9% Thompson 0%

Then in Ohio the Summit County party’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner held a straw poll of the 752 guests.
The Results:

Rudy Giuliani - 31%
John McCain - 26%
Fred Thompson - 12%
Mitt Romney - 8%

While not a scientific poll, I think it adds to the mounting evidence that Thompson candidacy would be devastating to Romney.

Moving on Up

Friday the National Journal moved Rudy Giuliani up to the number one spot, surpassing Sen. McCain as their GOP frontrunner. They are now willing to accept that "the early predictions of his doom were overstated." This just adds to the mounting evidence that Rudy is on his way, despite starting later then most and having little wide spread national organization. Marc Ambinder and Chuck Todd , the creators of the list commented:

There are three distinct camps among those Republicans who don't think Giuliani will win the nomination: the McCain camp, the Huckabee camp and the Arlington camp. The McCain camp believes questions about Giuliani's business practices and his personal character will disqualify him, and that his liberal positions on issues will be the coup de grace. The MSM is mostly in this camp. The Huckabee camp believes Giuliani is objectively too liberal to be the nominee and will not vote for him. The Arlington camp doesn't know whether Giuliani will be elected but worries -- for the sake of its organizations' bottom lines -- how a social liberal would affect the power and influence of organized conservative interests. If the election were held tomorrow, Giuliani would win. He doesn't have McCain's organizational strength, money, or endorsements, but he has a solid and growing lead in national polls. And so far, he's repelled some fairly devastating attacks (like the notion that he does not speak to his son).

They also estimate his fundraising projection to be $15 million behind both John McCain (20 million) and Mitt Romney (25 million). Still Rudy is gaining traction even in that arena with many "big donors" catching a ride on the Rudy bangwagon, including Richard Blackenship who switch just this week from the Romney camp.

NYT: Giuliani Strikes a New Tone on Guns

One of the biggest problems libertarians and conservatives have with Giuliani is his anti-gun stance. As a member of the NRA, I fully understand the importance of our right to bear arms . Still even the New York Times noted yesterday:

But as a presidential candidate, Mr. Giuliani now talks very differently about guns as he tries to allay the concerns of Republican primary voters. He says he supports the right of individuals to bear arms, and that states — and generally not the federal government — should decide whether to put some limits on that right. He also spoke in favor of a federal appeals court ruling this month that struck down a District of Columbia ordinance barring people from keeping handguns in their homes.

While I would not call it a full on flip-flop, he is obviously taking a very different tone on the issue. This should be good news, since the central idea of his philosophy on the 2nd Amendment seems to be state's rights, as it should be, so the impact he would have on this issue would be at worst neutral. I would argue that it would be positive since now that the courts are taking a more active role in defending our right to bear arms, Rudy's strict constructionist appointees would add to our new legal crusade.

Interview-Mike McKeon

This is an excerpt from an interview Blogs for Rudy did with the new Sr. Communications Advisor for the Rudy Giuliani campaign, Mike McKeon.

I think that at the end of the day, Rudy Giuliani is a guy who’s going to trust the American people and trust that when they take a full look at his record, will get it. That in an overwhelmingly Democratic city, with overwhelmingly Democratic city council, with a lot of people who are self-described very liberal legislators, he was able to cut taxes twenty-three times, he was able to reduce the size of the welfare rolls by a historic amount, he was able to reduce the size of government.

To read the rest of the this terrific interview click here

Conservatives for Rudy Giuliani

The Conservative Movement is at at a crossroad after years of supporting Bush over principles. Now in 2008 conservatives are looking around for the man who gave them their glory days, but the problem is that Ronald Reagan died on June 5, 2004 and no matter how miraculous we think he was, Reagan will not be rising on the 3rd year. So we have to look at what we have and not compromise on your core principles but respect differences for what they are and come to a well researched conclusion on who we want to lead our party and movement for the next 8 years. We also need to look at everything in a reasonable point of view and understand how the candidates would effect each issue. When looking at Giuliani we must also look at the office of president and how he would effect the issues we care about in that office. I will be going into this further in a little while. Vote Giuliani!!!

Libertarians for Rudy Giuliani

This is arguably the first time since 1984 that libertarians had one of their own, or at least one who shares most of their core principles one the ballot. Still most libertarians are squandering this opportunity to do what libertarians do best which is to argue about "purity". Since the days of Ayn Rand v. Nathaniel Branden libertarians have been obsessed with ideological purity, and for years it has lead to political failure. Since 1971, libertarians have been tricked into wasting their vote for a party that more closely resembles a kindergarten class then a national political organization. The Libertarian Party has done nothing but cause libertarians to become irrelevant in both parties and 0% influence in national politics as a whole. Now is our chance to have an impact and elect someone who is fiscally conservative, socially tolerant and pro-defense. Vote Giuliani!!!!