Salier’s strong showing as a hard-core, especially anti-abortion conservative, not only demonstrated social conservatives’ strong presence in Iowa, but also provided evidence, said Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University, that social conservatives had increased their influence over the Iowa Republican Party.  Goldford recalled Salier ending his concession speech with the words, “This isn’t about politics. This is about God.”

Social conservatives have taken the Republican Party by storm nationally, but especially in Iowa, where they may comprise up to 40 percent of the state party. The presidential Iowa caucuses serve as a reminder of their strength and their ability to influence the larger course of the nation. Mindful of the power they wield, Iowa social conservatives straddle the line between purity and pragmatism. “The problem is, religion is about absolutes, and politics is about compromise,” Goldford noted. “The question is about how well do they mix?”

Organizing Power

Iowa social conservatives first made their mark on the political consciousness by delivering the Rev. Pat Robertson a second-place finish in the 1988 Republican Iowa caucuses—ahead of then Vice President George H. W. Bush. “That’s where they sort of burst on the scene,” Goldford said. “It certainly put these folks on the map. In politics, appearance is reality, and it gave them the appearance of having tremendous muscle.”

Social conservatives’ influence in Iowa politics increased over the next decade. The fierce 2002 primary between Salier and Ganske showed how the political ground in the state had shifted in favor of social conservatives, Goldford said.

“It did not surprise me,” Salier said. “Ganske ran for office on the Contract with America and then abandoned those principles.” Salier said that armed with “the Constitution and Scriptures, people are going to rally.” He was disappointed that Bush and other conservative Republicans endorsed his more moderate opponent, but pointed out that, subsequently, they faced a backlash and that afterwards, the state party’s platform was revised to prohibit state or national party leaders from interfering in primaries. Salier did not endorse Ganske in what would be a losing race against Harkin, though he said he did not work against him. “I did not endorse him because to me, that is an endorsement of what someone believes in,” he said. “I do not.”

Steve Scheffler, president of Iowa Christian Alliance, said the rise of social conservatives in Iowa has been gradually evolving over the last 20 years so that “now, they’re pretty mainstream. I’m part of that movement,” he said. “I’ve been on the state central committee for 15 years.” Scheffler noted that the energy social conservatives put into politics has helped them gain power. “Not all party regulars are motivated by issues; it becomes more of a social club thing to them,” he said. “When you’re motivated by what’s right and wrong for society [people are more likely to act].”

Chuck Laudner, executive director of the Iowa GOP, agreed. “Here in Iowa,” he said, “if you are a true moderate that means you don’t really have a strong stance on the core issues that would drive you to go knock door to door.” Candidates court social conservatives, in part, for their get-out-the-vote skills, not just their ability to show up and vote. Since Robertson’s 1988 showing, Laudner said, “the battle in the Iowa caucuses process has been over those folks.”

Several state organizations help mobilize this potent constituency. After losing the nomination, Robertson turned his presidential operation into the Christian Coalition. An active Iowa affiliate formed, known as the Christian Coalition of Iowa, though it split from the national organization last year, becoming the Iowa Christian Alliance. Other organizations for social conservatives also sprung up around the state, such as Concerned Women for America of Iowa, the Iowa Family Policy Center, Iowa Right to Life Committee, and the Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators, among others. Iowa Family Policy Center president Chuck Hurley said in a previous interview that these organizations work together frequently. “There’s camaraderie, at a minimum,” he said. “There’s active cooperation in certain cases.”

Compromising Values

Salier said one of the main obstacles to his candidacy was that establishment Republicans didn’t think he was “electable” and could beat Harkin. This made no sense to Salier. “Just choosing someone because you think they can win is a guaranteed loss,” he said. “Conservatives are looking for substance. They want to vote for somebody … not just somebody that matches many of the things you’re against.”

Scheffler said social conservatives consider compromise on an individual basis. “We know there’s no perfect candidate. By the same token, even though we’re pragmatic to a certain degree, we want to send a message to the GOP and candidates,” he said. “Don’t give us the fluff off. Don’t give us the attitude that there’s nowhere else to go. That mentality is just not going to sell anymore.”

In the race for the 2008 presidential nomination, social conservative stalwarts like former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback remain at the back of the pack. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads in most Iowa polls, despite his past support for abortion rights. Kim Lehman, president of the Iowa Right to Life Committee, said Romney’s former stance would not preclude him from gaining support from social conservatives. “We support people that turn to the right side. We don’t discourage that at all,” she said in a recent interview. “People do become pro-life, and that’s our ultimate goal.”

The Republican front-runner who vexes Iowa social conservatives most of all is Rudy Giuliani. The thrice-married former mayor of New York who supports abortion rights and gay civil rights has sought to assuage social conservatives’ fears by declaring he would appoint “strict constructionists” to the Supreme Court. Even so, that has not persuaded many Iowa social conservatives to support him.

“Giuliani will be an absolute catastrophe if he’s the nominee,” Scheffler s
aid. “A lot of people in the movement are going to say we’d rather wander around the wilderness for eight or 10 years.”

Laudner shared those fears of a Giuliani nomination. “I’m going to be honest. I think there’s a risk there,” he said. “But that’s very easy to say when you’re more than a year away from the election.  It’s a bold statement,” Laudner continued, “and an easy one to make now. A year from now, the dynamics are going to be different.” Laudner said if New York Sen. Hillary Clinton is the Democratic nominee, he thinks social conservatives will rally around whomever emerges as the Republican contender. “They’re not going to stay home,” he said. “They’re going to be engaged because it’s going to be a monumental battle. They’re not going to sit on the sidelines.”

Salier, who is the chairman of Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo’s Iowa campaign, said he wouldn’t be so sure. “I cannot vote for a candidate that is not solidly pro-life and not solidly in favor of securing our nation’s border,” he said, noting this was his personal view, not connected to the Tancredo campaign. “If you’re not going to do that, then no, I’m not going to cast a ballot for someone who will not protect my country and who will lay waste to babies. … [Social conservatives] will simply stay home and not vote if the party continues to take them for granted.”

True Believers

Social conservatives are not naïve; they're political pragmatists, succeeding over the years in consolidating political power in the state and national Republican Party. But there is always concern that they will bolt the GOP or stay home if a Republican candidate does not share their core values. “The purist type is always happy to go over the cliff,” Goldford said. “The more pragmatic types want to say, half a loaf is better than none. That’s the big question.” He noted that any Republican is going to have views closer to social conservatives than a Democrat, but that might not be enough to bring them out to the polls. Indeed, an estimated 4 million evangelical Christians stayed home on Election Day in 2000.

For social conservatives, almost every political battle assumes a biblical scale, and that leaves very little room for shades of gray. They believe they are engaged in an epic struggle for what’s right. In that sense, while they hold views antithetical to those of political progressives, they share the same goal: to make the world a better place for them and their children.

Since the failure to win the 2004 presidential election, progressive activists, like their conservative counterparts, have also bemoaned the idea of electability as a method of selecting a candidate, arguing that a vote of conscience is stronger than a vote of perceived strategy. And there is always the possibility that progressives will stay home or vote third-party if Democrats choose a lackluster candidate. “Pragmatists want to win elections. Purists would rather be pure and right,” Goldford said. The Naderites of 2000 “were closer to Gore but didn’t seem to care. They allowed their purism to help elect Bush.”

Both conservative and progressive activists continue to walk the political tightrope of idealism and pragmatism. Scheffler made that clear in an earlier interview, when he called himself a sometime-critic of the GOP. “I’m much more about issues,” he said. “But if I’m going to effect public policy, I can’t sit on the sidelines and let others who I don’t agree with set the agenda.”

Big Grassley endorses and renames Nussle

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) may have found the best possible slogan to help former Rep. Jim Nussle win confirmation as President Bush’s next budget director.

Nussle, whose Senate endorsement is far from assured, first met Grassley while enrolled at Luther College, where the student drove the lawmaker around in an “old Ford” as a volunteer for the senator’s 1980 campaign.

Grassley said in his introduction of Nussle at the Tuesday hearing that he was a little disappointed that none of his five children would continue his legacy in politics. And, somehow, the Grassley brood’s distaste for Washington has helped Nussle’s cause.

“I always thought, well, it’d be nice to have somebody like me in the United States Senate, so when he ran for the Congress I backed him,” Grassley said. “And I considered him kind of a little Grassley.”

Maybe if Nussle goes by “Little Grassley,” Democratic senators will forget their qualms with the guy they say is too partisan for the budget job. Or maybe not.

“I cannot help but comment that this little Grassley has grown to be a mighty Nussle,” Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said.

Generation Joshua, a division of the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), provides Christian youth (those 11 to 19 years old) various opportunities to become active in the political arena. “Our goal is to ignite a vision in young people to help America return to her Judeo-Christian foundations,” reads a letter from Director Ned Ryun on the organization’s website. “We provide students with hands-on opportunities to implement that vision.” Ryun was unavailable for comment for this article.

In addition to providing members with civics courses and scholarship awards, Generation Joshua, or GenJ, encourages active political engagement through sponsoring voter registration drives and the participation in local Gen JClubs and Student Action Teams. GenJ Clubs provide Christian home-schooled teens the opportunity to meet and discuss prayer and politics; there are currently 66 clubs across the country, though none in Iowa. GenJ members take part in parades and sometimes protests; members in Merced, Calif., made news by protesting against Planned Parenthood. During elections, members of these clubs become energetic volunteers for socially conservative candidates.

Laura Lundberg, 18, is president of the Northern Colorado Generation Joshua, which meets in Johnstown, Colo., once a month. “I just think that civic involvement is very important for our nation’s youth,” she said in an interview. “Our students of today are the leaders that we have tomorrow. I think it’s extremely important [we have leaders] that will direct our nation where it should be going.”

Lundberg, who has been home-schooled her whole life, said her political views have “a very strong basis in biblical values.” The daughter of Kevin Lundberg, a Republican state legislator, she said she opposed abortion and supported individual freedoms and lower taxes. “Those are values that motivate me as an individual. I firmly believe in them.”

Sunshine Gearhart hosts the monthly event in her home of Johnstown, Colo. Her daughter, Tatiana, is the group’s secretary and she acts as its adviser. “They’re a great group of kids,” she said. Meetings begin with the pledge of allegiance followed by a prayer for the country and its leaders; she said the sessions follow Robert’s Rules of Order.

The members of Northern Colorado Generation Joshua worked hard in the 2006 elections to support Republican Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez and Bob Schaffer for Colorado State Board of Education. Their door-knocking and leafleting worked for Musgrave and Schaffer who both won; and Schaffer’s campaign manager was a member of the GenJ chapter, according to Gearhart. “We support candidates that are pro-family, pro-home school,” she said. “We feel like being Christians, we are called to be politically active.”

Lundberg and Gearhart were joined by members of the Student Action Teams, groups of home-schooled teens who do get out the vote (GOTV) operations for HSLDA endorsed candidates. These teams, sponsored by the HSLDA PAC, knocked on more than 100,000 doors and made more than 400,000 phone calls in the four days before the 2006 midterm election, according to its website.

Michael Farris, chairman of the board and general counsel for HSLDA, has said that these teams will be out in the field for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, whom the organization has endorsed for president. Justin LaVan, a board member of the Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators, said the teams would be noticed in the race for the caucuses. “They’ve been extremely effective. I know they’re actively coordinating things in Iowa,” he said in a recent interview. “I think it’s going to have a huge impact on the vote and what’s going on in Iowa. They have a proven track record.”

Lundberg said she had not yet decided on which candidate to support, but would actively volunteer once she made her decision.

SK Johnson, another home-schooled teen, is a strong supporter of California Congressman Duncan Hunter’s candidacy. A 17-year-old from Tennessee, Johnson has been home-schooled since “day one,” he said in an email. “A complete education is a Christian education, where I am growing in all areas of life both mentally and spiritually.” Johnson said his curriculum included Christian and non-Christian writers and focused on American history, Hebrew law, and the Enlightenment.

His family is a member of HSLDA, but he is not a member of a GenJ club because there isn't one in his area, he said. He would volunteer on the ground for Hunter if the lower-tiered Republican makes it far enough, but in the mean time Johnson is supporting his candidacy on his blog called “Duncan Hunter Grass-Revolt: Unofficial Grassroot HQ.” He said he likes Hunter’s strong opposition to abortion and illegal immigration.

Johnson said experience showed him home-schooled teens are active on the campaign trail. In 2006, he helped GOTV efforts with friends and family to successfully pass his state’s constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. “Homeschoolers are very well informed and when they work on a campaign, they combine that with a lot of active involvement, energy, and labor,” he said. “They always show up to volunteer at campaigns, to make phone calls, to set up signs, and communicate ideas to the people.”

Lundberg said home-schooled teens are more likely to get involved in politics than her public school counterparts. “I don’t think that public schools are teaching civic awareness in ways that young people want to get involved,” she said. “I know from experience. My friends from public schools have a lot harder time caring about political issues.”

Johnson said his faith moved him to act. “I am firmly a disciple and follower of Christ, and am a member of my church,” he said. “I believe that being a Christian is not just a matter of adhering to a list of beliefs and showing up on Sunday morning, but it's a living, breathing, life-altering form of existence.”

Iowa Independent has obtained a copy of the email, which notes:

While the other GOP candidates have accepted our invitations and have shown eager participation, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Sen. John McCain have each continued to avoid our constituency. This is disappointing to us at ICA in that these candidates seem to have the most to explain regarding their stances on important conservative issues.

Scheffler goes on to criticize Giuliani's and McCain's social conservative credentials, including Giuliani's support for abortion rights and "special rights for homosexuals" and McCain's support for embryonic stem cell research and his opposition to "a national marriage amendment which would take the activism out of activist judges."

Read the whole email below the fold. 

Giuliani & McCain: Some Explaining to Do

After the candidate forum, David Yepsen of the Des Moines Register wrote:

Mitt Romney, one of the leaders in the GOP race, lost ground when he declined to take a position on whether a national sales tax should replace the income tax. (He said he hasn't had time to study it. But he's been saying that for months now and the debate over a national sales tax or a national flat tax is a serious division inside his party.)

"The governor's tax plan is going to reward workers and families in America," Albrecht told Iowa Independent today. "He'll abolish the death tax and will make President Bush's tax cuts permanent. That's meaningful tax reform that he will fight for as president."

But the Fair Tax has become a rallying cry for grassroots conservatives across the state. Former Arksansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has made it a regular part of his stump speech. Americans for Fair Taxation's FairTax.org lists every Republican presidential candidate as a supporter of the Fair Tax, except for Romney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback. Even former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who has not yet announced his intention to run, is listed as a supporter. Texas Congressman Ron Paul is listed as N/A.

(Although Americans for Fair Taxation is "nonpartisan," the organization does not list the one Democratic presidential candidate who supports the Fair Tax — former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel. The site does list Oklahoma Congressman Dan Boren as the sole Democrat in Congress who supports the measure.)

UPDATE: At the time of this article's publication, Gravel was not listed, but I have been alerted to the fact that the website has been updated and he is listed. The website says that responses from the other Democratic candidates will follow soon.

So what is the Fair Tax? It would eliminate all federal income taxes (along with the Internal Revenue Service) and establish a national sales tax, with a tax prebate to help poorer Americans. Some, like Huckabee and Gravel, argue that with the prebate, it would be a system of progressive taxation, while most opponents — and Democrats — argue that the sales tax and lack of income tax would create a more regressive system.

While many may not know the intricacies of the Fair Tax proposal, grassroots conservatives in the Hawkeye state are looking for candidates to support the policy. Romney currently leads in most polls of Iowa caucus-goers. But as other candidates look to chip away at the front-runner, Romney's ambivalence on the Fair Tax could become a potent weapon, fair or not.

His pitch to Iowans continues to focus on the economy and security, while mostly ignoring the hotbed issues important to social conservatives. In his three radio ads (which you can hear here), Giuliani says that as mayor he decreased crime, cut spending and reduced taxes. This message of fiscal discipline is the other side of the coin of Giuliani's candidacy, which seems to focus entirely on terrorism and the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

He recently declared that he would only appoint "strict constructionist" judges to the Supreme Court, likely in an attempt to appease Iowa social conservatives. His support for abortion rights, however, may make that difficult. It makes sense, then, to focus on other issues. In a recent interview, Giuliani spokesman Jarrod Agen said that Giuliani's core concerns were: "staying on offense against terrorism" and "growing the economy.”

On last week's two-day visit to Iowa, Giuliani toured the western and eastern parts of the state, perhaps in an attempt to blunt criticism that he was ignoring all but the bigger cities. Today the campaign announced the support of 23 activists from southeastern Iowa who support Giuliani's candidacy. No word yet on whether a list of supporters from the more conservative western part of Iowa will follow.

The full list of supporters, via Jonathan Martin, is below the fold. 

Maggie Tinsman, former state senator, statewide co-chair & Southeast Iowa regional chair

Nicholas Roggentien, Iowa County sheriff

Robert Brennan, mayor of Deep River

Nathan Eichorst, veteran, U.S. Air Force

Saundra Orth, Clinton County chairwoman

Colin Sandberg, Iowa County chairman

Richard DeAngelis, Jefferson County chairman & state chair of Italian-Americans for Rudy

John DeAngelis, Jefferson County co-chairman

Leah Adams, Johnson County chairwoman

Carol Christiansen, Johnson County co-chairwoman

William Lemmon, Johnson County co-chairman

Deborah Acuff VonSprecken, Jones County chairwoman

Ruthi Rogers, Mahaska County chairwoman

Carolyn Williams, Muscatine County chairwoman

Steve Balk, Scott County chairman

Marlene Nelson, Scott County co-chairwoman

Richard Sipple, Scott County co-chairman

Janet Burroughs, Scott County co-chairwoman

Barbara Park, Scott County co-chairwoman

Kirk Whalen, Scott County co-chairman

Linda Greenlee, Scott County co-chairwoman

Lee Brinning, Washington County co-chair

Michael Kramme, Washington County chairman and Washington County GOP chairman

Nowhere are the hypocrisy-laden charges that invariably come with today's Edwards coverage. Those charges being the three H's–haircut, house and hedgefund–which refer to Edwards' paying $400 for a haircut, the gigantic house he built for his family and the fact that he has worked for a hedge fund, all while campaigning on an anti-poverty platform.

Why does most coverage of Edwards, including that of his recent poverty tour, include critiques of Edwards' commitment to the issue? Well, for one thing, as Marc Ambinder, among others, has noted, "fairly or unfairly, a healthy chunk of the national political press corps doesn't like John Edwards." The New York Times, in particular, has been criticized in the blogosphere for promoting these anti-Edwards story lines.

That this latest story does not include any of those anti-Edwards memes is a good sign for the Edwards campaign, especially because they have seeped into the state's consciousness. Edwards had certainly lost control of his own narrative, which can be fatal for a campaign; perhaps this story is a sign that he's regaining it.

But the story is not all roses for Edwards. The Times notes that New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Ilinois Sen. Barack Obama do not intend to cede the state by any means. They are drawing huge crowds, while also outspending him in the state and building significant organizations on the ground.

Edwards is still the favorite son of the Hawkeye state and leads in most polls, but Clinton and Obama are hot on his heels. If he does lose the Iowa caucuses next year, it's almost certain that his candidacy would go the way of Shoeless Joe Jackson and fade into the cornfields.

The IFPC is “associated,” Hurley said, with Focus on the Family, a national organization that is highly influential among social conservatives. Focus on the Family’s website CitizenLink.org lists the IFPC as its Iowa family policy council but says, “These councils are independent entities with no corporate or financial relationship to each other or to Focus on the Family.”

Lobbying the Iowa legislature takes up about one-third of IFPC’s time, said Hurley, a former Republican state representative. A bit less than one-third of the time goes to working in the courts, he said, and “probably two-fifths doing stuff in the culture and churches and community groups.”

“We do a lot of pre-marital counseling,” Hurley said. “I preach and teach in churches,” as well as in seminars, before rotary clubs and on talk radio. “I call that in total, our cultural effort, versus … [work] in the court room or state legislature.”

Hurley said “a few thousand” people listen regularly to IFPC radio shows or read newsletters, but he calls them “supporters or friends” rather than “members.” IFPC probably reaches the most people by riding the radio waves of 26 different radio stations around the state, Hurley said. Most of these are Christian radio stations but not all. “I’m on Jan Mickelson’s with some frequency,” he said, and sometimes he appears on KCCI TV to rail against “the culture.”

What does “the culture” entail? With short bursts of breath in between, he went down the list: “”Homosexual bills that come before the legislature, homosexual advocacy in the media; the life issue, abortion, euthanasia, cloning, sanctity of life issues; marriage is a big one, no-fault divorce, pre-marital counseling, court room battles defending the definition of marriage; a lot of pre-marital counseling, a lot of post-marital counseling; parental involvement to get more engaged in children’s education, advocating parental choice in education … curriculum in schools; gambling issues; pornography and obscenity laws and the enforcement there of.”

The IFPC, unlike other socially conservative organizations, does not intend to play a large role in the caucuses. “It’s pretty limited,” Hurley said. “We might disseminate some information.”

The organization will not endorse a candidate, though Hurley, as a private citizen, has announced his support for Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback and leads Brownback’s “Faith and Family committee.” Hurley has known Brownback for more than 25 years, dating to when Brownback lead the Bible study at the Kansas law school Hurley attended. Hurley got to know him there at a “spiritual, moral level,” he said. “I trust him.” Hurley said Brownback “helped orphans and widows of Sudan before it was cool to do so. He’s the real deal, very smart, and I think he can handle the office.”

Hurley said former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s ties to Marriott, which makes millions of dollars off hotel pornography, and has been a recent griping point among social conservatives, could hurt his outreach to the influential caucus-going group. “I think that could become an issue with him for a certain segment of the caucus electorate,” he said. “I think that’s an 80 plus percent issue that people are fed up with.” But, he said, Romney could still make lemons out lemonade. “He might have some clout and influence” at Marriott, Hurley said, and if Romney could convince the company to “get out of that ghastly business,” it could be a coup for Romney.

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson has also seen his social conservative bona fides go under fire after news broke that he had once lobbied for an abortion rights organization. “If that turns out to be true, I definitely think that could be a major issue for some people,” Hurley said. “There are a lot of purists or really passionate people on the life issue. If they sense that they’re being duped…”

Hurley said it was hard to describe the relationship between the different social conservative organizations in the state, though they likely share many of same supporters. “I do think those ones you mentioned are pretty much in agreement philosophically,” he said. “They certainly work together with some frequency.” He noted that he had worked with Kim Lehman, who has directed the Concerned Women for America of Iowa and the Iowa Right to Life Committee, on issues like abortion and pornography over the last 18 years. And the IFPC joined with Concerned Women for America of Iowa, and the Iowa Christian Alliance to form an organization called Iowans Concerned About Judges. “There’s camaraderie at a minimum,” he said. “There’s active cooperation in certain cases.”

In an interview with Iowa Independent, Burson Snyder, a Thompson spokeswoman, declined to comment on Laudner's decision. "As you know Senator Thompson is not a candidate yet. He’s still testing the waters," she said. "That’s the basics of this operation."

Snyder said she "wouldn’t want to speculate" on whether Thompson would compete in the Iowa caucuses and that she did not know if Thompson intended to visit Iowa before he announces whether he'll  run for president. Thompson is expected to announce his candidacy just after Labor Day.

Thompson may run in to trouble when courting Iowa social conservatives. His playboy past, and news that he once lobbied for an organization in favor of abortion rights, have the potential to hurt his candidacy among the influential caucus-going bloc. Snyder declined to "speculate" on that issue as well.

Still, she said Thompson would do well in Iowa, if he chose to compete. "Senator Thompson has broad support across the country even in this testing the waters phase," she said. "We expect this to continue going forward."

But after spending Wednesday and today campaigning across the state, Giuliani seems to have erased some of those doubts.

The Des Moines Register’s David Yepsen wrote a laudatory piece on Giuliani. “It’s a sign he and his people finally get it,” he said. “They get they can win Iowa.  And they get they’ve got to spend time in the state to do it. Until now, there’s been doubt the former New York mayor understood those things.”

And the New York Times reports (accompanied by a picture of a jolly Giuliani) his trip “reflects the campaign’s confidence that he now has a shot to win in the state, after Mr. McCain cut his Iowa staff by half.”

Jarrod Agen, a spokesman for Giuliani’s Iowa campaign, said Giuliani is “taking Iowa very seriously.” Agen said that in addition to the eight already scheduled stops, Giuliani took part in a parade in Sioux City on Wednesday; today he visited the eastern part of the state, including an ethanol plant. Agen said Giuliani would be returning to Iowa more frequently. “We’ll be back in a couple weeks,” he said, referring to the presidential debate on Aug. 5 in Des Moines. “He’s committed to Iowa.”

Agen said Giuliani had 10 staff members working in the state, which is now twice as many as Arizona Sen. John McCain, but only half of the staff for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has dominated the state so far. Agen said that the campaign had not picked up any of the McCain staffers who have departed; Tim Albrecht, a spokesman for Romney, said the same.

Agen said the campaign had not suffered since former Congressman Jim Nussle, one of Giuliani’s top Iowa advisers, left the campaign after being nominated by President Bush to be director of the Office of Management and Budget. “We were pleased with the help that Congressman Nussle gave us in setting up our operation,” he said. “We feel we have a good strong team that will win the caucuses [and will] build on what Congressman Nussle helped start.”

Giuliani’s support for abortion rights and record of social liberalism as mayor of New York will almost certainly be an obstacle for his candidacy. But it might not be quite the barrier many had predicted. On Wednesday, Giuliani declared he would appoint “strict constructionists” to the Supreme Court in the mold of justices John Roberts, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, and there is reason to believe social conservatives will be pacified by that promise.

Agen deflected a question on whether Giuliani’s support for abortion rights would harm his candidacy. “He made 12 commitments to the American people, and one of them is to reform the justice system,” he said. “He is a strong proponent of those who will interpret the Constitution and not legislate from the bench and that includes a number of issues and it’s something he feels very passionate about.”

In pushing Giuliani’s candidacy, Agen highlighted Giuliani’s leadership during these “difficult times.” He also seemed to take a page from Romney’s playbook. “Mayor Giuliani feels there are two [core] issues," Agen said. “One of them is staying on offense against terrorism. The other is growing the economy.” Romney regularly likes to say that there are three legs to the Republican stool: strong defense, strong economy and strong family. It seems Giuliani is gambling that he can stand on a two-legged stool. He might be right.