Has Giuliani still got the fire in his belly?
Could Rudy be tempted to throw his hat into the ring?
Overnight I’ve placed a fair bit of money on Rudy Giuliani for the Republican nomination at prices greater than 40/1 after watching a TV interview that he gave over the weekend.
At this stage before the 2008 race Giuliani was the hot favourite for the GOP slot. It was his crazy strategy of avoiding the first round of primaries so he could throw everything into “Super Tuesday” that caused his bid to flop. By the time we got to the day when nearly half the US voted McCain looked unassailable.
Now Giuliani’s stirring again and has an advance team already working in New Hampshire – the state with the first proper primary.
Giuliani is saying that he won’t be doing anything for at least a further three weeks to take in the 10th anniversary of 9/11 – when, of course, he came to national prominence.
No doubt he’ll feature strongly when America looks back to 9/11 and that could be an ideal spring-board for a 2012 candidature.
In the weekend interview he said: “I have to factor what kind of chance I would have in states like New Hampshire, where I think I would have a pretty good chance because there are a lot of independent voters who don’t find my being a more moderate Republican so difficult.”
The party has a sense that if you’re moderate about anything, you’re not the right candidate, and I have different views than the majority of the party on a few things, mostly the social issues…”
At the centre of his thinking is that with the dramatic shift to the right, many moderate Republicans feel disenfranchised.
He certainly sounds like a man with a plan and if he does run the betting price will tighten very quickly from what I managed to get overnight.