SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Hollywood producer Joel Surnow dismissed as “nuts” the notion that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton can be elected president and said he and other conservatives in the entertainment industry are leaning toward supporting Republican Rudolph W. Giuliani’s presidential campaign

“I’m not even sure that Hillary is a fait accompli [to win the Democratic Party nomination] as this point,” Mr. Surnow told a group of reporters and bloggers in a wide-ranging interview during the Young America’s Foundation’s West Coast Leadership Conference. "Are we nuts thinking Hillary Clinton could be president of this country? Honest to God, just stand back and think about it.

“Real leadership is not the friend of consensus, because the real leader is always outside the consensus,” Mr. Ashcroft said in remarks to foundation supporters at the Reagan Ranch Center, where he accepted YAF’s Torch of Freedom Award and paid tribute to former President Ronald Reagan