Rudy makes it look easy
HOLY CANNOLI, Rudy did it again, stealing a march on the Mittster -- and leaving his flatter-footed rival gasping for air time.
Early primary season presidential debates, particularly cattle calls like Fox's Tuesday night affair, are mostly about creating a moment memorable enough to make the news recaps, and Giuliani did just that. When Texas Congressman Ron Paul seemed to blame US foreign policy, and particularly past military action against Iraq, for inciting the 9/11 attacks, a ready Rudy pounced on his impolitic rival.
"That's an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of September 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq," he said. "I don't think I've ever heard that before, and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th. And I would ask the congressman to withdraw that comment . . ."
As highlights go, it was even better than Mike Huckabee's gibe that Congress has been spending money "like John Edwards at a beauty shop." In a field where everyone wants to be Ronald Reagan, Rudy's rivals instantly recognized the success of his Gipper-esque gambit -- and clamored for time to offer rebukes of their own.
"We'll all get 30 seconds," a hopeful Romney suggested. "We all want 30 seconds."
Alas, there would be no 30-second chances. The forum moved on.
For this observer, the deftness disparity called to mind the Curious Case of Cannoli Cluelessness from the 2002 gubernatorial campaign. Giuliani had come to Boston to campaign with Romney, and as they toured the North End, a bystander offered to treat the two to the aforementioned delight.
"No thanks. Got to run," replied Romney, displaying a multi millionaire's uncanny common touch. Whereupon Giuliani leapt shrewdly into the breach, saying he'd actually like to buy a cannoli for the well-wisher.
But back to the debate. With Giuliani ascendant, Romney needed an arresting instant of his own. The best he could do, however, was to try to generate a bit of Gitmo-mentum by pandering to the habeas-hating lock-'em-up-and-throw-away-the-key crowd.
"Some people have said we ought to close Guantanamo," he said. "My view is, we ought to double Guantanamo."
And if Giuliani beat Romney to the punch, John McCain landed a telling counterpunch.
When Mitt portrayed McCain as Ted Kennedy's tag-along on immigration reform and, for good measure, threw in some negative comments about McCain-Feingold, the campaign-finance legislation loathed by conservatives, the Arizonan had had enough.
He, for one, had been consistent, and not just on campaign finance reform but in opposing abortion as well, riposted McCain, concluding: "I haven't changed my position on even-numbered years . . . or because of the different offices that I may be running for."
Ouch. Actually, though, that's a pretty accurate description of Romney -- a description that underscores one of his principal problems. He's remade himself so thoroughly that the old Romney is always lurking like a not-so-distant doppelganger, spurring continual questions about his sincerity -- and accusations of expediency.
Annoying as that no doubt is, it must be more vexing still that Republicans continue to prefer the unvarnished Rudy to the remodeled Mitt. Why, consider all the work Romney has done to retrofit his positions. He has not only devised an epiphanic moment that supposedly led to his (politically convenient) antiabortion conversion, but has also conjured up (ever-so-plausible) rodent-and-rabbit shooting expeditions to backstop his claims to huntsmanship.
And here Rudy is, just brazenly standing by his support for abortion.
Well, not totally standing by. Although Giuliani says he'd leave the decision to the individual, he has also promised to appoint strict constructionists to the Supreme Court, who might then overturn Roe v. Wade, throwing the issue to the states. Still, that's barely a quarter turn compared with Romney's about-face.
Yet despite his ideological impurity, there Rudy is, still leading in national polls.
A new Gallup survey, for example, has Giuliani up 29 percent to McCain's 23 percent.
As for Romney? He's back at 8 percent, behind sideline siren Fred Thompson and barely ahead of Newt Gingrich, another might-be candidate.
Yes, Romney can point to progress in Iowa and New Hampshire. But he still lags badly in conservative South Carolina, where a new poll shows him well behind both McCain and Guiliani.
It makes one wonder whether Romney has made a mistake by steering so transparently to starboard.
Why, he might have done better simply running as himself.
Whoever that may be.
Scot Lehigh's e-mail address is lehigh@globe.com. 
