|
 "While there are various polls, and some are up-and-down, the overwhelming consensus has been that he is best-positioned to top pro-abortion candidate Rudy Giuliani for the Republican nomination," the group's executive director, David N. O'Steen, said at a news conference.
By emphasizing Thompson's political potential -- he ranks second behind former New York Mayor Giuliani in national Republican polls
-- the anti-abortion group played down its own differences with Thompson.
Thompson has been at odds with the group because he doesn't support a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion, a long-standing party platform plank; because he has called the Terri Schiavo right-to-die case a family matter; and because he backed campaign finance regulations that the group considers a restriction of free speech.
The group also considered candidates' voting records and their stances on various issues, O'Steen said.
Giuliani has promised to appoint Supreme Court justices who take a conservative view of abortion, but O'Steen said the group could not overlook Giuliani's support for a woman's right to choose.
He contended that the group's endorsement, which Republicans had telegraphed a day in advance, carries more weight than other recent endorsements by conservatives. Among those: Televangelist Pat Robertson has endorsed Giuliani, and Moral Majority co-founder Paul Weyrich is supporting former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
"This is an endorsement by an organization representing groups throughout the country, 3,000 chapters, and it just can't be compared to individual endorsements," O'Steen said.
[to top of second column]
 |
 In South Carolina, where he gave a speech on the military, Thompson said he didn't know what went into the endorsement.
"I don't know what went into their deliberations," Thompson said. For almost a decade, Thompson said, "I voted with them on every issue that came down the pike. And rhetoric and form and wish lists and questionnaires and things like that float around these things
-- that's one thing. But a record is something you can't get around."
Giuliani was asked about the endorsement during an appearance in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, and said voters should assess his complete record and then decide whether "they agree with enough of that to support me, or don't they?"
"I expect to win the Republican nomination, but believe it or not I do not expect to win every vote, nor do I expect to win every primary" Giuliani said. "I'm going to be myself. I'm going to do the best that I can to explain to the American people what I believe, and then I am very comfortable with their judgment as to whether or not they think that's enough, or they don't."
[Associated
Press; By LIBBY QUAID]
Associated Press writers Jim Davenport in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Michael Blood in Glendale, Calif., contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
