US Politics

The Accidental Hero

The Rudy Giuliani Campaign

On February 5, 2007 Giuliani officially entered the US Presidential election.

As the Republican presidential nomination field first formed, Senator John McCain was viewed as the front-runner. However, Giuliani held a lead in the nationwide polls by January 2007.

Giuliani did not campaign actively in the early voting states, focusing instead on surviving those smaller early states, then winning an overwhelming number of delegates once the big multi-state primaries began on or shortly before February 5 2008, such as in Florida, New Jersey, New York, Illinois, and California, and where Giuliani’s fundraising bankroll would be to his advantage.

After finishing third in Florida’s primary, Giuliani’s campaign indicated he would withdraw from the race following this poor showing. On January 29, 2008, news agencies announced that Giuliani was withdrawing from the race and endorsing John McCain.

The Mitt Romney Campaign

Romney formally announced his candidacy for the 2008 Republican nomination for president on February 13, 2007. Romney partly financed his campaign with his own personal fortune, contributing over $35 million of the $90 million raised by his campaign, as of December 31, 2007.

Following the results of the 2008 Super Tuesday primaries, Romney suspended his campaign for the presidential nomination on February 7, 2008. He stated that by staying in the race he would only “forestall the launch of a national campaign and frankly I’d be making it easier for Senator Clinton or Senator Barack Obama to win.

Romney won 11 states primaries and caucuses, 4.2 million votes and 291 delegates. Romney endorsed McCain for President on February 14, 2008

The Mike Huckabee campaign

Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas, announced his candidacy for the Republican Party nomination for the 2008 presidential election in the United States on January 28, 2007.

On January 3, 2008, Huckabee won the Iowa Republican Caucuses with 34% of the electorate. On Super Tuesday, Huckabee won an additional 6 states, including most of the Deep South. On March 4th, 2008, Mike Huckabee officially ended his campaign by conceding to John McCain.

The Ron Paul Campaign

On December 1, 2007, the Los Angeles Times declared Paul a player in the presidential campaign.

In an editorial on January 11, The Washington Post noted his opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, compared his foreign policy views to the isolationism espoused by right-wingers such as Patrick Buchanan, and called his economic theories “idiosyncratic.” The editorial concluded that Paul was, in the words of Jeane Kirkpatrick, “blaming America first”. On the same day, the editorial board at The Tampa Tribune wrote an editorial on Paul’s “fantasies”, saying that “For every serious problem, he has a simple, silly solution: “Let it solve itself.”

On March 4, John McCain earned enough delegates to become the Republican nominee. Mike Huckabee dropped from the race as a result, but Ron Paul decided to continue his run, having successfully defended his congressional seat.

In the words of Ron Paul. “It’s not over; it’s certainly winding down, there are a lot less primaries left. Super Tuesday has passed, and McCain has the nominal number. But if you’re in a campaign for only gaining power, that’s one thing. If you’re in a campaign to influence ideas and the future of the country, the campaign is never over”.

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