Fred and Rudy

I think when all is said and done with these 2008 presidential elections, that Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani may go down as two of the worst run campaigns ever. Other men have come and gone but most of the people who have dropped out did not have a legitimate shot to win. Giuliani was the national front runner until recently, but is now a distant third possibly fourth in Florida. Fred Thompson was supposed to be the conservative savior riding in on the white horse to save the day, but the Fred hype was overblown and after several lackluster months of campaigning has dropped out after South Carolina. So what happened?

Fred seems to be the easier answer. He wanted to be president, but without having to actually work or do much to get the job. There was a lot of buzz around when Fred joined the race officially. If he had the hit the ground running and really got out there and hustled he may still be around today. However this does not seem to be Fred's nature and instead of hit the ground running he hit the ground ambling and never seemed to work up to even a jog. As opposed to most of the others running Fred did few events and for the most part his events were pretty uninspiring. There was the one tape that hit You Tube where Fred was begging for applause. The only two times that I saw any excitement in Fred was he got feisty at the South Carolina debate, and gave a fairly passionate although somewhat confusing speech the night of South Carolina primary when it was pretty clear the end was near. When Fred dropped out he did it via a two sentence press release. That pretty much sums up Fred 08.

It appears we are in the final stages of the crash and burn of Saint Rudy of 9-11. He road name recognition to the top of the polls, but has been a major disappointment since actual voting has begun. The only the only question you have about Rudy in the contests so far is whether or not he was able to do better than Ron Paul. Unlike Fred, Rudy has been out there campaigning and trying to woo the voters, but a strange thing happened in New Hampshire and now Florida. When Rudy Giuliani becomes more than a name and people get to know him better his poll numbers go down. He is trying revive his campaign in Florida but is fighting an uphill battle. The social conservatives never really liked him, McCain is beating him on the national security front, and Mitt Romney has the sunny Reaganesque vibe. Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann were talking about the timing of Rudy's run. The idea being that running on 9-11 is simply not playing as well in 2008 as it may have earlier. Say for instance Rudy could have run in 2004 with convention in New York City and much was made about 9-11 in that campaign season. However they had a nominee in 2004 and Rudy had to wait. While he was waiting Iraq has become a mess, and W has trashed the Republican brand name. Not to mention 9-11 not being on the forefront of people's minds like it was before. Maybe it's just what New Yorkers had already found out that beneath the shiny veneer of 9-11 hype that Rudy is an unlikable, thin skinned, vane, egotistical maniac who ran New York with an iron fist until the people got tired of his act. That the lead in the national polls was name recognition more than anything else, and as the country got to know Rudy more liked him less.

Update
Rudy Giuliani ended up finishing third in Florida and will be dropping out of the race. I have mixed feelings about Rudy dropping out. I would have liked to see Rudy get the nomination because he would have been killed in the general. However it would have scared me to have that man so close to winning the White House because you never know what might happen. So all in all it is probably for the best Rudy goes away now.