Tuesday, September 25, 2007

RUDY GIULIANI

An NRA Endorsement in the GOP Primary? I'm Skeptical

My understanding is that this Washington Times story — suggesting that the NRA may endorse a candidate in the Republican Primary — makes the possibility of an endorsement sound more likely than it actually is.

As the article notes, the NRA has not gotten involved in presidential primaries in the past, only general elections. The group has clear rules on who and how they endorse - for example, they always endorse an incumbent with an A+ rating, no matter how pro-gun the challenger is, which is why they endorsed Republican George Allen over Democrat Jim Webb last year.

The group does, however, know that its membership is a key and active demographic in both parties primaries' (yup, Democrats, too; a lot of union guys in the Midwest hunt) and that they'll be eager to get the candidates to make their pitch on their issues. In other words, the NRA won't have to make an endorsement; their members, having seen the candidates address the gun issue at events like Friday's forum, will know which ones they prefer and trust and which ones they don't.

By the way, while I think Rudy Giuliani did himself some good in his appearance Friday, I don't want to oversell it; what he did was assure gun owners that if it comes down to him and Hillary Clinton, he's a much better alternative to her, who gun owners more or less view as the Antichrist. Giuliani will probably be the first choice of a quite limited number of gun owners; what his efforts to reach out to NRA members now assures is that they won't stay home or vote third party in 2008.

09/25 10:06 AMShare