Rudi Guiliani tries to "skirt" the liberal issue.

Mayor Guiliani is currently the leader in national GOP primary polls, although in the early primary states he generally takes a back seat to Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, and even Fred Thompson. Many pundits and even a noteable news network have proclaimed the inevitability of his nomination. Here at TCPNews, we feel that Mr. Guiliani is the benefactor of name recognition, and not much else.

His fundraising efforts started out with a bang, and he's received a great deal of "earned press" due to the visibility of his former post. The pressing question is can he run a political campaign off name recognition alone? Common sense might tell you that the inumerable skeletons in Mayor Guiliani's closet will come back to haunt him, but perhaps with the "gotcha" style "hit and run" media coverage that has typified this campaign cycle, one can "skirt"(please excuse the pun) the substance of the issues, and wrap oneselves in the flag all the way to the whitehouse.

The internet is brimming with short clips of Mayor Guiliani denying his Republican bonafidas, and declaring that he ran "as a liberal". Will the media at large address these issues or will he be given a free pass to the nomination? If these issues are addressed, recognized, and defended during the Republican nomination cycle, and the electorate decides in his favor, then his candidacy will be very real, and will indicate a shift in the traditional Republican viewpoint on social conservatism. Despite the soundbites you receive from the Republican debates, Mayor Guiliani certainly has a record and reputation for supporting gun control, gay-rights, and illegal immigration.

What is lamentable is not Mayor Guiliani's personal beliefs or conduct, but the utter absence of information regarding these issues. In the YouTube Republican debate, Mitt Romney was confronted by a movie short provided by the Thompson campaign on his flip on the abortion issue. Romney addressed this issue by stating that he was "wrong" and "if you're looking for a candidate that's never been wrong, im not your guy". While his sudden change of heart on the issue is certainly politically expedient, the virtual blackout of Mayor Guiliani's inconsistencies is staggering.