Abstract

Steve Forbes: Can This Candidate Be Saved?

The article focuses on publisher Steve Forbes. In 1996, when Forbes spent $42 million on an unsuccessful bid to ride his flat-tax proposal into the White House, he had positioned himself as a libertarian leaning, money-first conservative. He refused to endorse a constitutional amendment to ban abortion, instead advocating a step-by-step antiabortion persuasion crusade. For that, the National Right to Life PAC and the Christian Coalition blasted Forbes. He fired back, declaring that the Christian Coalition "does not speak for most Christians." The Iowa Right to Life Committee whacked Forbes for having co-chaired a Republican group supporting candidates who favored abortion rights. Yet, after the campaign, Forbes funded antiabortion advertisements and reached out to social conservatives.