Rudy vs. McCain Banner Ads -- Look Who's Top Dog

A preview of things to come?

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This is from a Weekly Standard article on the McCain vs. Romney showdown in Michigan, a piece that nearly meets First Responder criteria for ignoring the central fact of the '08 race: Rudy's frontrunner status.

Crowning the page is an enticing ad for Giuliani's Solutions America web site (on NRO, the ad is said to have generated the shocking idea that Rudy might run in '08). Below and to the right you'll see an ad for McCain and his months-old book.

We can speculate all day long of course, but I doubt this is a coincidence.

In recent months browsing the Weekly Standard online or NRO, I have yet to come across an ad for Straight Talk America. But Rudy starts making presidential noises with an online ad buy on several conservative websites, and all of a sudden, McCain ads start popping up.

There's no way of knowing for sure who's ad was up first, but we've seen this kind of thing before. When Jim Nussle's campaign for governor send out a glowing email on Rudy's trip to Iowa, Straight Talk America countered within a week with a McCain fundraising email to the same list.

So, this begs the question. If McCain's people aren't worried about Rudy and bluster that Rudy "wouldn't get out of the gate," why are they seemingly so intent on copying his every move with this new form of Presidential cyber-stalking?

The people advising McCain aren't dumb. They understand the serious threat Giuliani poses, and realize that Rudy's entry into the race could well be a campaign-ender for them.

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