Politico Hedges Its Bets, Claims Conservatives Will ‘Back’ And ‘Bolt’ From Giuliani

On May 28, Politico’s senior political writer David Paul Kuhn wrote an article with the headline “Social conservatives bite bullet, back Rudy.” Kuhn’s lead declared the conservative base was increasingly falling for Giuliani because he was perceived as “most electable.”

In just two weeks time, Politico’s Kuhn turned the story on its head and wrote a piece with exactly the opposite lede. In an article entitled, “Conservatives would bolt over Rudy,” Kuhn declared the conservative base was threatening to take flight from the Republican Party if Giuliani were to win the nomination.

As a staff writer, Kuhn is not responsible for the headlines on his articles. That’s the job of Politico’s editor, John Harris. Harris famously patted himself on the back for conceiving the inartful and inaccurate characterization of the Democrats’ supposed “slow bleed” Iraq strategy. Harris later explained:

You can understand my pride of authorship. Editors labor in obscurity. Our job is to keep reporters from looking bad, and to let them take the credit when they look good. Rarely is there tangible evidence that we are having any impact. But in 20-plus years in the business, I can scarcely recall an instance when words typed on my keyboard have had such a loud and immediate echo.

Harris need not worry. He is certainly having an impact. Whether Giuliani ends up winning or losing the support of social conservatives, we’ll know one thing for certain: Politico had it nailed…and they had it completely wrong.

(HT: TP reader ME)