As expected, Rudy Giuliani has dropped out of the race for President and thrown his support to John McCain:
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. - Rudy Giuliani dropped out of the Republican presidential campaign on Wednesday and endorsed Sen. John McCain for the nomination.
Giuliani made the announcement at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library a day after suffering a debilitating defeat in Tuesday’s Florida primary.
With McCain at his side, Giuliani said the nation needed “someone who can be trusted in times of crisis.”
“Obviously I thought I was that person,” the former New York mayor said. “The voters made another choice.”
He noted that he and McCain had managed to compete without running negative ads against each other and said, “We will remain friends.” He said he would campaign for McCain as much as the Arizona senator wanted.
Giuliani said that he will be actively campaigning with McCain and that’s likely to help significantly in delegate-rich states like California, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania where Giuliani had a substantial, if diminished from it’s high point, following.
Tonight’s debate on CNN should be interesting. I expect to see Romney taking up the mantle and going after McCain in a way he hasn’t before. McCain meanwhile, will get to play frontrunner with all the advantages that includes — meaning he won’t have to go negative like Romney will. As for Huckabee, well I expect he’ll continue his two-week old practice of practicing to be Vice-President attacking Romney and keeping the gloves off McCain. And Ron Paul ? Who knows what he’ll do.
I’ll be back tonight with round-up and reaction.
