I’m still agnostic on just about everybody on the GOP bench these days (though I could be tempted to vote Kucinich-McKinney ‘08 if George Pataki were the only other choice), but I am warming to the Giuliani argument for several reasons. One of them is related to my warming (from a very cold starting point) to McCain. Putting aside the fact they’d be good on the war on terror, there might — might! — be an argument for having a candidate who is beholden to the conservative base while not being of it. A president whose personality is less Red state, might be more effective, first of all. Second, conservatives would be less likely to mistake culture cues for policy support. Bush has gotten a lot of slack because he is personally such a conservative figure. Perhaps a nominee who gets less slack will be more likely to reward the base in concrete terms, while remaining more popular to the middle. Or, maybe not!