Despite the televangelist being increasingly marginalized and ridiculed, Robertson’s endorsement of Giuliani did make a splash. The media played up Robertson’s well known opposition to homosexuality and abortion and how he might provide political cover for other social conservatives looking to support Giuliani who has been a vocal supporter of abortion rights, gay marriage, and a variety of other policies which lean much more Rockefeller than Reagan.

Father Neuhaus is one of the leading and most elegant voices against abortion in public life. The Roe vs. Wade decision was pivotal in his transformation from a liberal to a conservative. But Neuhaus, like Hitchock, fails to understand the danger the right to life movement faces as social conservatives increasingly support presidential candidates with poor records on abortion.