Too Liberal Rudy

Here's an amusing passage from the Rocky Mountain News' coverage of the Giuliani campaign:

After Wednesday's event in Council Bluffs, when reporters pressed Giuliani on the abortion issue, he pointed out that none of the audience members had asked him about it that day. "So maybe it's more of an issue for you than it is for them," he reckoned.

He might not be aware how often his name and the abortion issue come up at dozens of campaign stops for his more conservative rivals. Time and again, Republican audience members offer an immediate answer when asked if there's anyone in the field they never could support. It's Giuliani, they say repeatedly, because of his "liberal" stands on abortion and gay rights.

Those people don't show up at Giuliani's events. Instead, he's greeted by people like Jane Thomas, 80, of Cedar Falls, who sees him as the one who can win two big battles.

"I like that he's gonna take care of the terrorists," she said after he shook her hand inside a diner in Waterloo. "I think he's good. And I hate Hillary."

The faster Rudy realizes that the GOP tent just isn't that big, the sooner he'll wrap up the nomination.