It’s of course hard to say how lasting the effect of Giuliani’s comments about abortion and his understanding of “strict constructionist” this week will be, but judging by the DC social conservative types I’ve talked to in the past 24 hours (some of whom had been quite open to Rudy before) I have to say it looks like this will hurt him quite seriously in those quarters. That was never his constituency, of course, and DC types don’t speak for social conservatives across the country, but as JPod said, Giuliani had been trying to manage a careful game with them to keep them open minded. That game might be ending.