A Tale of Two Endorsements

Rudy Giiuliani received the surprising endorsement of Pat Robertson, arguably the most powerful social conservative leader alive, in Washington, DC, today. Networks covered the two figures’ joint appearance to announce the endorsement live, and the blogs are chattering about it. Sen. John McCain received the endorsement of former candidate Sen. Sam Brownback, one of the more well-known social conservatives in the Senate, in Dubuque, IA, today, with considerably less fanfare.

That the two endorsements were announced in such different ways says something about the different campaigns’ goals. Giuliani wants the story of his Robertson endorsement to be national news. As Marc Ambinder put it, “A DC endorsement means national media coverage, which means that Giuliani’s campaign probably wants the press to focus on the ‘this helps him with Christians’ theme rather than the ‘this helps him in Iowa’ theme.” It is an interesting decision, since Robertson actually placed second in the Republican Iowa Caucuses in 1988.

McCain wants Brownback’s endorsement to help him on the ground in Iowa — specifically among Catholics. More media would have covered the announcement if it had taken place in Des Moines or even Cedar Rapids, where media outlets are located and national reporters are embedded; but McCain and Brownback made the announcement in Dubuque, a decent-sized down that is decidedly out of the way for most of the Iowa press corps. I think it was the wrong decision, but I think I know why they made it: Catholics.

Dubuque has a lot of Catholics. Many of the social conservatives in Eastern Iowa are Catholic, and those who are not Catholic may be less hostile to Catholicism than the evangelicals in Western Iowa. Brownback, who is himself a socially conservative Catholic, may have had his best numbers in this part of the state — the most committed supporters, the best network of churches, the lowest negatives, or whatever.

It could also be that McCain has all but written off Western Iowa, where the most diehard social conservatives live, and that he (like Giuliani, it seems) is targeting the less dogmatic Eastern Iowa voters rather than those in the West.

But whatever the reason, McCain’s decision to announce the endorsement in Dubuque was the wrong one. He was endorsed by a former presidential candidate and sitting senator, and all the press will be talking about today is Pat Robertson. And if the Giuliani campaign rushed out the Robertson endorsement today because they knew Brownback’s endorsement of McCain was coming (which is a real possibility), that’s just mean.

Update: Jay Wagner, Iowa Independent’s primary GOP politics correspondent, finds Brownback supporters who say they won’t automatically support McCain.