Rudy Giuliani was in Baltimore yesterday and pretty much confirmed that he’s a candidate for the 2008 Presidential nomination:
BALTIMORE — Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani said he is “seriously considering” a run for president in 2008. But he reiterated, as he has in many campaign-style appearances, that he was focused on the 2006 midterm elections. He said he would continue to travel the country to gauge the breadth of his support and his ability to raise the money needed for a presidential bid.
“Eventually, when you make the decision, you have to go through a kind of soul-searching about how much you think you can bring to it,” Giuliani said.
Of course, he does recognize that there are obstacles between him and the White House, namely getting the GOP nomination:
Giuliani acknowledged that in a presidential bid, he would have to rally supporters in states where voters have more conservative leanings. He believes, though, that he could have a broad appeal.
“Sure, there are divisions between red states and blue states, but Americans are more similar than they are different,” Giuliani said
Hmm, sounds like a theme for a Presidential campaign to me.
Howard Kurtz, for what its worth, isn’t buying the Giuliani speculation:
Those who think that the 9/11 hero would be a formidable candidate are forgetting about the 9/10 Rudy. Meaning, this is a guy who is pro-choice on abortion, pro-gay rights and moved in with a gay couple after a messy breakup with his wife that came as he was dating another woman. None of that is likely to sit well with Republican primary voters (although Giuliani would be a strong general-election candidate with appeal to Democrats if he could ever win the GOP nod).
True perhaps, but there are many aspects of Giuliani’s pre-9/11 record that would help him as well. His record as a Federal Prosecutor for one. The fact that he cracked down on crime as Mayor for another. New York City was, in many ways, a better place to live because of what he did, though I will admit that some of it disturbed my libertarian sensibilities.
The divorce issue is a potential problem for Giuliani as it would be for Newt Gingrich, who I would rather see as the nominee, but if it were clear that Rudy could win in `08 I think alot of Republicans might look past it.
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July 24th, 2006 at 7:35 pm
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