Gore Debate Heats Up

Rudy Giuliani seems to be hanging in there despite his well-known disagreements with religious conservatives. Fred Barnes thinks he needs to do more:

"Rudy Giuliani has a problem. It's bigger than he imagines and could doom his presidential prospects. The problem is his pro-choice position on abortion. It's one he cannot finesse by simply saying he 'would keep the balance exactly where it is now.' That means abortion would remain legal, limited only by a few minor restrictions. For social conservatives in the Republican party--millions of them, I suspect--that situation is unacceptable.

"Given Giuliani's skill as a campaigner, he might overcome the abortion problem in the Republican caucuses and primaries. He doesn't need to win a majority to capture the presidential nomination, just finish first in most of the contests. But the general election is another matter. In it, he'd probably have to get 50 percent of the vote, or close to it, to defeat Hillary Clinton or any Democrat.

"That's where the social conservatives come in. If Giuliani is the Republican nominee--and he's the frontrunner at the moment--a pro-life candidate is bound to run on a third party ticket. Richard Land, a prominent Southern Baptist leader, says the pro-life presidential effort would be 'significant.' The question is how significant."

Barnes has a little speech that he wants the former mayor to deliver.

Deroy Murdock says abortions declined in New York City during Giuliani's tenure--and disputes criticism that this is just spin.

Whither Fred Thompson? Betsy's Page says: "I'd tended to discount the line on Fred Thompson all summer long that he was lazy, figuring that that was just scuttlebutt from his opponents and that energy in a Senator was not necessarily what I was looking for. But he's been providing more evidence for that reputation since he announced his candidacy. And now voters in New Hampshire are starting to notice that he's not campaigning very strenuously for their support. And they're a state that likes to see candidates up front and personal.

"Besides participating in his first presidential debate in Michigan last Tuesday, Thompson was missing from the campaign trail. The former Tennessee senator and star of NBC's 'Law & Order' was scheduled to be in New Hampshire this weekend, but canceled. New Hampshire voters noticed . . .

"Thompson might think that he can win the nomination through some sort of innovative campaign that diminishes the need for lots of personal appearances, but substituting interviews on Fox and a few canned speeches isn't going to hack it."

Byron York has the same lament:

"Fred Thompson has had to deal with the perception that he's not fully into the presidential campaign. That perception won't go away with reports that Thompson hasn't made a public campaign appearance since the debate in Dearborn, Michigan on Tuesday:

" MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - Mitt Romney was in Michigan, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada and then went back to Michigan. Rudy Giuliani visited Florida, Michigan, South Carolina, Alabama, Washington and New Hampshire. John McCain went from Michigan to Iowa to New Hampshire.