How? BHO didn’t run against McCain, he ran against George Bush. Rudy was brought down to PA to “help” Rick Santorum against “where’s Bobby” Casey and Santorum was hammered. Rudy would’ve been painted as “pro-choice” Bush, animating the left and generating even more Conservative antipathy than McCain.

Moreover, given a shot to influence the national stage, he recommended Bernard K. Not sound judgement.

I agree though that he’s not a “perfect conservative”, he’s not a conservative at all.

IMHO, some Dem operatives that saw him as the biggest threat in 2008 were behind it, and that’s why we got stuck with McCain, since Rudy’s former supporters had to go somewhere.

Lazio probably has nothing to lose in running – after all, in 2010, there’s an outside chance that even Schumer’s act will have gotten old to New Yorkers, and he may bet booted as a result. If I was Rick Lazio, I’d probably give it a shot…

Most of the problems he has with social conservatives are moot when it comes to real public policy goals. Appointing strict constructionist judges takes care of about 90% of the agenda for social conservatives, something I have no doubt he would do.

At the end of the day, my first priority is a conservative that can actually get something done, and Giuliani has shown he can implement conservative solutions in one of the most liberal cities on Earth. Other contenders like Huckabee and Romney talk a great game, but have achieved almost nothing.

If Rudy wants to make another run for the White House, he needs to knock off Gillebrand in the Senate.

Also, I’m hoping that maybe there are some Dems that would like to see Schumer fall. Would Cuomo prefer that for any reason? Anyone out there who wants to be king of the NY Dems?

Giuliani 2012 – it won’t be the first time he’s cleaned up someone else’s mess.

Nobody has that kind of record–not Pawlenty, not Romney, not Huckabee. The only one who comes close to being that kind of scrapper is Sarah–who fought the establishment and won. She’s a doer like Rudy–a real reformer, not just a talker–though Rudy excels in articulating the conservative vision. My dream ticket would be Rudy and Sarah in 2012.

I don’t buy that Rudy can’t get through the GOP gauntlet because of his social views.

Two points need to be remembered: he had always been reasonably sympathetic to GOP positions on social issues and was never a fervent opponent; and the country is in much more peril this time around–peril that requires exactly his kind of capabilities.

Rudy is an executive genius. He gets the impossible done–despite media opposition, despite political opposition, despite racial politics. All this was thrown at him while he was mayor–but he got the job done just the same. Before that as US Attorney he broke the back of the Democratic political machine in NY, sent corrupt Wall Street billionaires to jail, and sent the heads of the NY mafia to prison for long terms. Before that he was Asst. Attorney General under Reagan. He has intimate knowledge of how the federal system functions. There never was a candidate in our time more qualified for the top slot. Instead we gave the nod to McC. And then there was his cool-headedness on 9/11…

I could never understand why we should have insisted that a blue state big city candidate like Rudy was supposed to appeal to farmers in Iowa or evangelicals in SC when our opposition would be primarily in blue states and in the big cities.

Rudy polled remarkably well nationally against both Obama and Hillary, leading by around 5 or 6 points. He also polled well among the GOP rank and file across the board. He just could never get traction in those small states. Yet he was leading in polls against Hillary and Obama in places like CT and NJ and PA and FL–where there are huge Italian-American populations–the Reagan big city ethnic Democrats, a bloc as big as the black vote and the soil out of which Judges Scalia and Alito have sprung. It was crazy to have ignored this potential in order to appease voters who inhabited the South and wheat belt mostly–regions already in our pocket. What kind of political sense did that make?

“What he said to me is that he doesn’t think he’s going to do it,” Molinari said about a conversation earlier this month with the former mayor. “It just didn’t make any sense to him.”

Molinari said the ongoing circus in the state Senate, combined with Democratic Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s iron grip on Assembly matters, had convinced Giuliani that a Republican governor would have little ability to get things done quickly in Albany.

“The big drawback for him was – could I really be effective?” Molinari said. “He saw too many hangups there. He’s not running for the title, that’s for sure.”

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/11/19/2009-11-19_former_mayor_rudy_giuliani_to_announce_plan_to_run_for_us_senate.html#ixzz0XR5qg8R2

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/11/19/2009-11-19_former_mayor_rudy_giuliani_to_announce_plan_to_run_for_us_senate.html

He is a great administrator, and could campaign on that record. Furthermore, in light of the KSM nightmare, he would remind everyone what a great leader (executive) he was on 911. Couldn’t he beat Cuomo with that?

Where would he be more valuable – the Senate or the Governors Mansion?

Giuliani has supposedly said he’s not running for Governor, and he’d probably lose against Cuomo anyway.

He really should run for the Senate though, he’d destroy Gillibrand.