Thursday, March 29, 2007

Giuliani's Political Ju-Jitsu

Yesterday while I was on Capitol Hill, Rudy Giuliani announced that Steve Forbes will be a campaign co-chair. This is right on the heels of an interview Giuliani did with Larry Kudlow, in which he enthusiastically embraced the low-tax supply-side mantle.

Interestingly, Mitt Romney strongly opposed Forbes' flat tax. This will create a little bit of heartburn for Romney, since he'll need to sound friendlier to this supply-side idea if he expects to win the nomination.

This helps round out his message to primary voters: 'I'm your guy in the war on terror, and on the economy. We may disagree on abortion, but we agree on judges and reasonable limits to abortion. I'm 80 percent of the perfect candidate.'

Why does this qualify as political ju-jitsu? Timing.

And what happens today? Mitt Romney debuts his economic plan. Think he'll get any questions about why he opposed the flat tax, and what he thinks about Steve Forbes backing his supply-sider opponent?

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