Rudy Giuliani Withdraws

Following on the heels of John Edwards announcement of withdrawal from the race for nomination, the Republican race has also today decreased by one candidate - Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani has, in the last few minutes, announced the end of his campaign and endorsed Senator John McCain for President.

Wow, that was fast after Florida. I guess it wasn't completely unexpected; he's already lost a lot of contests and fell third in the place where he pegged his flag to the mast. But it just seemed to come all so fast, and seemed a bit like a waste for Giuliani. He didn't compete in so many contests, then competed once, lost and dropped out.

People will write about the Giuliani strategy for quite some time. The critical ones will speak of the stupidest presidential campaign ever waged. The serious ones will discuss an attempt by the Giuliani campaign to remake the way that primary campaigns are fought, casting them as national and not local battles that take place in several, unrepresentative states.

The strategy may have worked if there were 2 or 3 states prior to Florida and Super-Duper Tuesday. The people could put up with Giuliani skipping Iowa and New Hampshire - after all, why do those two states get all the attention as it is? But having then skipped Michigan, Wyoming, Nevada and South Carolina indicates a real weakness in the Giuliani campaign which we hadn't really prediced because of his phantom 'national' frontrunner status. It only really now becomes clear (though I spoke about this in my previous post on Giuliani) that he'd bowed out of competing in every state that, combined, had created a fair slice of America. He chose not to compete amongst Evangelicals, independents, Hispanics, southern conservatives...who in the Republican Party was therefore left to support him? Retired New Yorkers, who got him as far as third place in the Florida primary.

Why then was Giuliani the national front-runner? It's a question I'll have to look into. It seems that Rudy's Republican party doesn't exist anymore. Senator McCain is finding that his Republican Party isn't quite there anymore, but he's not as far out in the socially conservative cold as Giuliani was. Pro-choice, pro-gay, pro-gun control, pro-anything that social conservatives hate. Tough job, Rudy.

Where Rudy's national frontrunner status originated from will provide us with a lot of information about his campaign. There's also been a lot of talk about the laziness factor for Giuliani in the same way that there was for Thompson. He was too lazy to fight in the previous states, where he needed to get down and scrap with McCain, Romney and Huckabee. He wasn't willing to do that...and so was he lazy? Or was he (failing to) reshape the way that primary campaigns are fought? Give it a couple of weeks to simmer down, and we'll see what reflections come forward.

What now for Rudy Giuliani? He's made a ton of money. He may go back to doing that...or perhaps there's a spot in the McCain Adminstration. Or an open Senate seat in New York... Many, many options to see Giuliani again.