Strange Bedfellows

The man who is most associated with grace under pressure and leadership for his efforts to steady the City of New York following the 9/11 attacks, has received an endorsement from Pat Robertson, who once claimed that the 9/11 attacks were God's way of punishing Americans for not being moral.

Rudy Giuliani rightfully put Ron Paul in his place on several occasions for engaging in conspiracy nonsense or blaming America for the attacks. How he will handle this endorsement will be interesting.

I don't give endorsements that much power in swaying elections as they're often not worth the paper they're written on. Robertson, however, controls a significant media outlet and reaches millions of voters who might be swayed to vote for Rudy or another less conservative Republican instead of either sitting on the sidelines or voting for a third party candidate that might allow a Democrat to win a three-way election (just as Bill Clinton won in 1992 and 1996).

This endorsement also suggests that conservatives are realizing that pushing for a third party candidate because they do not see any candidates to their liking among the GOP may only backfire in the end. Getting some of their issues addressed by a GOP candidate is better than getting nothing under a Democrat or a third party candidate who has no chance of winning at all.

UPDATE:
While the day started out nicely for Rudy, it's not going to end that way: An indictment of Bernard Kerik is expected shortly. Kerik was Rudy's police commissioner, and Kerik has since been found to have run afoul of the law on several occasions, one of which torpedoed his chances to become DHS Secretary. If convicted on the expected charges that include tax fraud, corruption and conspiracy counts, he may face a lengthy prison sentence.