Will Pat Robertson's Endorsement Help/Hurt Rudy Giuliani?

As word leaked out this morning via the Washington Post that religious leader Pat Robertson intended to endorse Rudy Giuliani today, my mind kept wondering if this endorsement would be a positive or a negative development for Rudy Giuliani? Over the past few years, Pat Robertson has been saying some pretty crazy stuff and at one point I thought Robertson might have been slipping off the mental deep end. As often times happens, television evangelist become so popular that they start to believe they are God, instead of his world messenger. Considering the current state of affairs surrounding Pat Robertson's life and ministry, 'The 700 Club', my personal gut feeling is that today's reported endorsement of Rudy Giuliani by the Reverend Pat Robertson will be a negative for the Giuliani campaign.

I have been on record here for a long time stating that large religious leaders have grown too powerful in the modern Republican Party. In fact, crazy decisions like the Terri Schiavo Law should scare all Republicans and be a wake up call of what can happen when religion and politics get too closely intertwined. Even more recently, when President Bush nominated Harriet Miers to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court - religious leaders flexed their muscles and killed her nomination before it ever started in earnest. It is just as crazy to have extreme social conservatives running the Republican Party as it is to have radical left wing Hollywood types in control of the democratic party. In far too many ways both the GOP and Democrats have sold their soul out to extremist whose narrow minded views of the world are a detriment to this great country.

A few decades ago, a major enforcement from a famous minister like Pat Robertson would have carried with it tremendous weight in the GOP primaries. However, times have changed in Republican politics. I believe most Republicans would like to see the party drift more to the political center and for our future leaders to focus more closely on fiscal and national security issues than to talk like midweek preachers giving a sermon from the White House. Rudy Giuliani is the perfect man to lead the Republican Party away from religious extremist and back to a more mainstream place in American politics. While Giuliani will most likely welcome an endorsement from Pat Robertson, I hope in accepting this endorsement, Rudy has not sold his soul to the far right social conservative movement.

Read more about Rudy Giuliani:

Rudy Giuliani Attacks Hillary Early And Often
Rudy Giuliani Works Overtime To Win Conservative Voters
Rudy Giuliani Blasts GOP Congress - Smart Move
Rudy Giuliani Cell Phone Stunt Could Backfire
Rudy Giuliani Talks About 911/Iraq War