Used Hawks Flock to Giuliani's Team

All the other candidates for president, both Republican and Democratic, are also advocates of Israel, as are most American voters. And Giuliani's GOP rivals have also taken strong stands against Iran's nuclear program. There are also a few neocons advising them—most notably, Liz Cheney, the vice president's daughter, who has joined Fred Thompson's team. Yet other GOP candidates, like Mitt Romney, have shied away from identifying too much with neocons, especially those who worked for the Bush administration. Romney has consulted with critics and skeptics of the Iraq War, including Gen. Anthony Zinni, Gen. Barry McCaffrey and former NATO commander Joseph Ralston—but he's also met with hawks like Fred Kagan. "He talks to everybody, more or less," says one campaign adviser who didn't want to be named talking about internal campaign strategy.

Giuliani may be gambling by leaning so heavily on the unpopular neocons. He also knows, however, that painting the War on Terror as a broad moral crusade—the basic neocon approach—is probably the only way he can win over a conservative Republican base that doesn't like his squishiness on values issues like abortion or his marriages. Giuliani has succeeded by casting the War on Terror as the "defense of Western civilization, and for many [conservative] voters that is a moral issue" that may be as important as abortion, says Gary Bauer of American Values, an advocacy group that promotes traditional marriage and pro-life views, among other conservative issues. (He's not backing a candidate.) "Without that it would be inconceivable that a socially liberal New York mayor could be leading in the polls for the Republican nomination." Giuliani's support of Israel also plays well with Christian evangelicals who have made survival of the Jewish state part of their doctrine. Then there is the Clinton factor. Even key Southern evangelical leaders who don't favor Giuliani because of his views on abortion, like Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention, tell NEWSWEEK that Giuliani is still running strong because the right sees him "as the only candidate who can beat Senator Clinton." No matter whom he's taking advice from, Giuliani knows that the impression that he can make Americans safer than Hillary Clinton could ultimately bring him the nomination and the presidency.

With Sarah Elkins And Steve Tuttle

© 2007