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Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Presidential notes: Hillary vs. Giuliani, and National Right to Life embraces Fred Thompson
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A WAGA-TV (Fox 5)/Rasmussen poll of 500 Georgia voters posted last night shows that Democrat Hillary Clinton could give Republicans Rudy Giuliani or Fred Thompson a run for their money in a general election contest.
And Democrat Barack Obama would be less successful.
Below are the pairing. Margin of error is plus-or-minus 4.5 percent:
— Giuliani, 48 percent; Clinton, 44 percent;
— Thompson, 47 percent; Clinton 44 percent;
— Giuliani, 51 percent; Obama, 37 percent;
— Thompson, 48 percent; Obama, 39 percent.
(On a non-presidential note, though they don’t blame Gov. Sonny Perdue, 63 percent of those polled said Georgia was “not very prepared” or “not at all prepared” for the current drought. Count that as one reason for this afternoon’s pray-for-rain service.)
In other presidential news, the political action committee of the National Right to Life Committee has endorsed Republican Fred Thompson for president — dismissing his opposition to a constitutional ban on abortion, and his fuzzy comments on the Terry Schiavo case. Keep in mind there’s a split between the national organization and its Georgia chapter. You can read the entire NRLC endorsement here, but below are two interesting sections:
“While Fred supports the long-term objective of the Human Life Amendment, the votes are simply not there in Congress, nor were they there when we controlled both houses of Congress. For instance, in the Senate, we are presently at least 25 votes short, with psssage in the House even more difficult.
“Fred intends to focus his presidency on those things that can be achieved, or advanced, in the next four to eight years.”
And there’s this:
“With regard to end-of-life matters, he believes that families should make these decisions for their loved ones.
“In cases where there is division over effective life-sustaining treatment, he hopes the benefit of the doubt is given to life.”
The 390,000-gallon-a-month water bill in Cobb County
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Radio talk show guru Neal Boortz is waxing loudly this morning about an ABC news report on a fellow in Cobb County who uses an average 390,000 gallons of water a month. In October, he used 440,000 gallons — all indoors. That’s more than 14,000 gallons a day.
The piece identifies him as an executive for a liquor company. Here’s a link to the video, from this morning’s “Good Morning America.”
Robertson’s endorsement of Giuliani, and the fallout
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The conservative American Spectator today addresses rifts within the GOP evangelical base over televangelist Pat Robertson’s endorsement of Rudy Giuliani for president:
“We had no warning about his decision,” says a senior official with Regent University, the school Robertson founded. “It has placed in a difficult position of trying to explain how a man of God could support a man who at the very least is at odds with his church, and is very likely not in good standing with his church.”
The piece also notes that last week’s endorsement has put Roberston at odds with long-time associate Jay Sekulow, a Washington insider and chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative Christian advocacy group based in Alpharetta.
Sekulow and Gwinnett County publicist Mark DeMoss have been the leading Southern evangelical figures backing Mitt Romney.
The Sekulow family were also major supporters of Ralph Reed’s candidacy in the ‘06 primary race for lieutenant governor. Reed hasn’t formally endorsed Giuliani — who came down to Atlanta last year to help Reed raise money for his unsuccessful attempt at candidacy.
But the former executive director of the national Christian Coalition has had some awfully nice things to say about Giuliani.
