According to the New York Times candidate Rudy Giuliani is going to begin explicitly giving his view on abortion rights in the coming weeks/months which is that he is pro-choice. After months of giving conflicting answers (finally culminating in what many see as a poor performance during the first Republican debate) Giuliani seems ready to hedge his bets and stand by his beliefs.

I said yesterday in the blog that I didn’t understand why Giuliani or Romney thought they could position themselves as anti-abortion candidates with such massive records leaning the other way. Now I have to wonder if it is too late for Giuliani who started out as the hero of 9/11 and has now become the candidate of questionable abortion credentials.

Giuliani’s overall campaign logic is somewhat sound. Hammer home that we are in a war, hammer home that he is tuff on crime & defense, let voters decide if differences on social issues outweigh his message on how to lead and run the country & its defense. But instead, by trying to hide his social beliefs and mask them behind language he didn’t do that. He allowed a huge distraction to enter voters minds.

I have to believe that for average conservative American voters abortion is a very big issue. More than that though I have to believe they want a candidate who won’t pander to them on it. If you believe in ending abortion you will have less respect for someone who pretends they will give you what they want then someone who just comes right out and tells you they don’t agree.

Frankly a voter who is making most of their presidential decision on the topic of abortion and doesn’t want nuance isn’t going to vote for Giuliani and probably not Romney either. Now those who could have look at him and wonder if he has a credibility problem.

I am glad to hear like Giuliani might be ready to come clean, it is still early. I just don’t understand why they didn’t start out this way.