WASHINGTON — Rudy for president? For months, it seemed unfathomable.
A liberal on social issues with a scandal-ridden personal life, Rudolph W. Giuliani was viewed as such a black sheep by many conservatives in the GOP family that he continually was confronted by the question: "Are you \o7really\f7 going to run?"
Now such doubts have been silenced. He's running hard, and the former mayor of New York is a political hot property. He's pulled far ahead of the man long presumed to be the party's front-runner for the 2008 presidential nomination -- Sen. John McCain of Arizona -- and undercut other hopefuls, most prominently Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts.
In survey after survey of Republicans, Giuliani is leaving his rivals in the dust with double-digit leads. And in key swing states, pollsters have found he would beat the Democratic front-runner, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. Even some leading social conservatives are putting aside their differences over abortion and gay rights to join Team Giuliani.
The Giuliani surge may be a sign that social issues will not be the litmus tests they long have been for GOP presidential candidates.
It also reflects the unsettled state of the GOP field. No candidate has established himself as the party's consensus choice. Giuliani is trying to fill that vacuum.
But if doubts about Giuliani's intentions have ended, the honeymoon he enjoyed for so long among voters who knew him only as the hero of Sept. 11 also has a short shelf life.
As he is subjected to more intensive and critical scrutiny, questions loom over whether he can sustain his sky-high status.
As the campaign intensifies, voters will get to meet the pre-9/11 Giuliani -- a brash politician who stepped on toes all over New York; a mercurial personality who humiliated his second wife in public.
Estrangement from son
Meanwhile, his post-9/11 persona could prove a bonanza for opposition researchers: He has made millions in consulting and speaking fees that have so far been examined little.
A type of revelation that could tarnish his image surfaced last weekend when his 21-year-old son, Andrew, spoke publicly about his estrangement from his father in the years since Giuliani's divorce from his second wife, Donna Hanover, and his marriage to Judith Nathan.
Most people know little about such details, polls show, and Giuliani is doing what he can to put his best foot forward in this early stage of the campaign.
