Giuliani eyes the top prize

By Michael J.W. Stickings

The AP is reporting that America's (most overrated) mayor is set to launch his long-awaited and much-anticipated campaign for president: "The former mayor filed papers to create the Rudy Giuliani Presidential Exploratory Committee, Inc., establishing a New York-based panel that would allow him to raise money to explore a White House run and travel the country."

On the right (and in opposition to many on the right), James Joyner argues that "Giuliani instantly becomes the 1B to John McCain’s 1A among Republican hopefuls. He is, in my view, the most interesting of the major contenders and the one that offers the best hope toward ending the virtual 50-50 divide that we've been trapped in the last couple of presidential cycles." But I tend to agree with Shakespeare's Sister, who argues that he has no shot of making it through the primaries. (He's pro-choice, pro-gay, and pro-gun control, after all, although the Veep spot may indeed be a possibility. Romney-Giuliani, anyone?)

Giuliani is an interesting figure only because of 9/11 and his inflated popularity. But 9/11 is in the past, and I'm not so sure he's really the hero he and his admirers have made him out to be. He did well on that terrible day. Which is all well and good, but not nearly enough to be president. Besides, I suspect that the rigours of a national campaign would knock him off the perch of self-congratulation he so comfortably occupies.