Rudy Giuliani Can't Take a Hint

An article in the New York Post today mused about a potential Rudy Giuliani candidacy for governor of New York in 2010. The first emotion that I felt when reading this was ecstasy, for Rudy would surely lose, and then confusion. Why would he subject himself to yet another losing campaign? He ran for Senate in 2000 and dropped out due to health-related issues (plus a divorce, and being 10 points down in the polls), and, of course, he ran for President just this year and dropped out after winning a grand total of 0 delegates, and only coming in the top 3 in one state: Florida. Why would he now mount a campaign for governor?

Polls taken just before Super Tuesday this year showed Giuliani and McCain in a tight battle. Now, Giuliani ended up dropping out before then, so we'll never know how he truly would have done, but the result probably wouldn't have been favorable to him. To quote Peggy Noonan, "On 9/10/01 [Giuliani] was a bum, on 9/11 he was a man, and on 9/12 he was a hero. Life can change, shift, upend in an instant." Yes, it can, and his failed attempt at the Presidency shows that it does. Time Magazine's 2001 "Person of the Year"'s approval rating plummeted from 64% (2/07) to 45% (1/08).

Look, if Rudy Giuliani needs to fuel his already enormous ego by mounting yet another failed bid for an office for which he is so underqualified, that's fine. If he really wants to put himself through another year or so of endless flip-flopping, running of the mouth, and performing badly in debates, that's his choice. But he isn't in the heartland anymore, where people only know Giuliani for his heroism after 9/11, which I'll grant him, and his supposed cleaning up of New York, which I won't. He's back in New York, where people are mad at him for a variety of reasons. And does he really want to relive his seven-and-a-half years of poor mayoring, and one year of poor presidential campaigning? Probably not.