Giuliani a Media Favorite After All?

Last week's Chris Matthews Show devoted an entire segment to a potential Rudy candidacy. Here are some excerpts:

Mr. BROOKS: Yeah. Well, I--I--I'm told that when he thinks about his future, the only thing that really grabs him is public service, and that means being the president, stay at that level.

MATTHEWS: So he's making a lot of money, but that's not what he wants.

Even David Brooks understands that Rudy's support comes from the Right, and what follows is a lively discussion that opens up the possibility that Giuliani could win this thing after all:

Mr. BROOKS: But there is a difference in their constituencies. When you look at who's backing Giuliani, oddly it's the people to the right of the people backing McCain, because they like the tough guy. And the crucial question for Giuliani is when those people learn about the divorces and the other things in his background, do they react or not? And I don't think that's a clear issue that they immediately push him away. They might, you know, they're pretty broad-minded and practical-minded. And they might say, OK, `We'll accept all that, if he sends us a message on judges.'

What's interesting is that social conservatives aren't telling Rudy "No" right off the bat. They're batting their eyes provocatively, playing hard-to-get, wanting to be wooed, waiting to get the signal they seem to intensely desire -- that he's one of us.

Matthews sees Rudy as the tribune of Reagan Democrats:

MATTHEWS: I'm not so sure that the people on the Catholic side who are usually pretty cautious about issues or negative about issues like gay marriage, abortion rights, don't find a kinship with this guy that may trump all that. A familiarity coming up in ethnic neighborhoods in the big city, being a big-city mayor, that grittiness, that Catholic school education may trump all that. People say, `I know he's had some mistakes in his life, but he seems like us, you know, he's tough--tough on crime,' you know the whole thing.

In the back and forth, comes good reason why reporters should root for Rudy and not pooh-pooh him:

Ms. TUCKER: He--he is the guy that journalists would most like to see in the
race.

Mr. FINEMAN: You got it.

MATTHEWS: Why? Because we don't have any idea what would happen, right?

Ms. TUCKER: That's exactly right.

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