Bauer on Rudy

I caught up with Gary Bauer this morning at the Christians United for Israel summit here in D.C. and asked him whether he thought Rudy Giuliani could use his strong record of support for Israel as a way to reach out to evangelicals who may otherwise be disinclined to support him because of his views on social issues. In his warmly received speech at Pat Robertson’s Regent, for instance, Giuliani talked about how the world had been romanticizing Arafat in the 1990s. Here was what Bauer had to say:

“He’s had some success being able to do that which accounts for his lead. He’s not getting a majority of evangelicals, but he’s getting enough to still keep him in front. My gut instinct tells me, however, that over the course of the campaign, it’s going to be harder and harder for that to be effective. One of the reasons being I think a lot of the evangelicals feel that ultimately to protect American you not only need a strong military and a solid foreign policy, but also that America needs to have moral renewal and make sure that we are doing the things as a nation that we ought to be doing and I think that’s going to end up being a disconnect particularly when there are going to be other strong pro-Israel candidates in the race that have good records.”

The point about evangelicals believing that moral values are a necessary component of security I found to be interesting, and perhaps Mitt Romney’s “stong military, strong economy, and strong family” message will successfully tap into this sentiment. In response to a follow up question, Bauer said he didn’t want to comment on whether Giuliani was “unacceptable” because he was heading a group of pro-family leaders who have been meeting with candidates for a year in hopes of finding somebody to endorse, and he didn’t want to hamper that process by publicly ruling out any candidates.

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