Rudy the Baptist: Will Iowans Take a Dip?

That's what my column is on for The Examiner today:

It’s as if he’s saying, “I’ll give you tough on terror. America’s Mayor, tax reform, proven results, the right judges and all this charisma, but we’re always going to have differences on some social issues. Come on, you know you wanna. You won’t have to get nervous about terrorists killing you or about watching your president speak in public. Four years with me? It’ll be a blast!”

He grins, he struts, talks about protecting fellow Americans with that Italian New York machismo all over his voice, and even Christian conservatives start to think, “Amen.”

But for how long will simply laying the social issues aside work for Giuliani? Charisma is a huge part of the presidential electoral process (incidentally, it’s been a miniscule part of the last couple of Democratic campaigns).

But even the grandest of candidates needs ground operatives, and social conservatives make up a part of the political machine that Rudy can’t do entirely without.

There are two paragraphs in the piece that should be block quotes and are not-- 7th and 13th-- so I'm gonna try to get that fixed. In the meantime, please hold off on the plagiarism charges.