Giuliani Blog Tracking the likely Presidential candidacy of Rudy Giuliani

Monday, May 22, 2006

Rudy Acknowledges Co-Frontrunner Status, Says He'll Decide After '06

The Boston Herald caught up with Rudy Giuliani following his commencement address at Suffolk University Law School. The Mayor had this to say:

He is bemused that a book by New York Post columnist John Podhoretz is predicated on the notion that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) is on an inexorable march to the White House and that he might be the only Republican on the planet who can stop her.

“Hillary does look like the front runner at the moment,” Giuliani said in an interview. “I guess McCain and I share that role in our party. But she seems to have it all to herself right now.”

Only belatedly does he think to mention Sen. John Kerry or the retooled Al Gore.

McCain may be already off and running, but Giuliani is working on his own timetable.

“First we have to get through ’06, and it’s going to be very tight,” he said of the congressional elections. Oh, he’s been out and about making appearances for candidates and fundraising in North Carolina, Georgia, California. Sure it’s the right thing to do, but it also doesn’t hurt to collect those chits if a year from now - and that is his time frame - America’s mayor turns presidential contender.

“I’ll approach it from this point of view,” he said, “whether I can make a significant contribution.

“It will also depend on what the issues are a year from now,” he added, noting that voters look for different qualities in their leaders, depending on those issues.

And it is also - as it is for every potential contender - about the money.

“It’s easier to campaign for other people and to raise money for other people than to do it for yourself,” he said.

And any presidential run is a matter of “can you put together an organization to run and to raise the totally absurd amounts of money you need to give yourself a real chance.”
If John McCain is as clueless about the blogopshere as he sounds, Rudy will have the edge online. And in a close contest, every bit counts.

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