May 24, 2011 11:20 PM UTC

Rudy Giuliani--Why The Hell Not?

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• by: Colorado Pols

Our friends at the Washington Post report:

For months, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s name has drifted in the periphery of the 2012 Republican presidential race, something more than a pipe dream but short of a full-fledged candidacy.

That all may change soon, according to New York Rep. Pete King. King said at a dinner with reporters that Giuliani is “very close to saying he’s going to run”, adding: “If he were to make the decision today, he would run.”

…The reason why? “He is worried that no one in the field can beat President Obama,” said the source. “He would consider supporting someone he felt would be a good president and could beat Obama. He doesn’t see that right now.”

While Giuliani is clearly taking a hard look at running, it’s difficult to see how he could overcome the problems that afflicted his 2008 presidential bid – in which he began as a frontrunner but failed to win a single primary or caucus before dropping from the race.

Last Wednesday, we discussed the difficulty that Republicans were having closing the gap between their desire to make Barack Obama a one-term President, and the reality of their lackluster field of potential 2012 presidential candidates. On Wednesday, much of the talk was about the hope that Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels would get in the race and rally conservatives.

Daniels took his name out of the running this weekend.

So today, one can say truthfully that the field is wide open for Rudy Giuliani, the quasi-moderate former mayor of New York with his mile-long train of baggage you learned about in 2007, to challenge apparent frontrunner Mitt Romney for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. As much as it is for anyone, and as much of a “prize” as that may turn out to be.