Rudy to drop out

After a pathetic 3rd place 15% finish in Florida, Rudolph W. Giuliani has supposedly decided to drop out of the race and endorse John McCain. Sad sad story really, because here was a guy who had it all going for him, and had a healthy lead. And then he went for a terrible terrible strategy of waiting until Florida to make his stand. He and his advisers were stupid enough to not realize the value of early states momentum, something that catapulted McCain to the top. What makes Rudy's decline even more pathetic is that the guy who is the national front-runner now, John McCain is not THAT different from him. Socially moderate, mild on immigration, and a largely centrist Republican apart from the unwavering support for the Iraq war and the war on terror. Come to think of it, even the challenger in the race Mitt Romney had a socially liberal past, and if you mapped these three guys on the political views spectrum, they would not be too far apart. I mean of Huckabee or Thompson were leading the race, Rudy's exit might not have seemed pathetic, because it would have meant he just had the wrong message.

And yet, whatever Rudy had going for him by way of personal appeal, natural talent and selective ideological positions, he has thrown it away thanks to a disastrous strategy even as people not very different from him are making waves. Now that he has decided to drop out of the race, I suggest his next job should be coaching the West Indian cricket team. He should feel right at home there.