********I HAVE BEEN SAVING THIS POST FOR IF/WHEN GIULIANI FIZZLED OUT**********

[bluestateguy]

Thank God.

He was the candidate I feared the most. Not that anybody will be "easy" to beat, but Giuliani at the GOP nominee scared the living daylights out of me.

Democrats used to just get clobbered in the suburbs in presidential races. We were depicted as the party of the cities and the minorities. You can't win elections by just squeezing every vote out of the bottle in big cities. With hard work and outreach, we as a party have achieved parity with Republicans in many suburbs, like the Detroit suburbs of Oakland and Macomb County, the Cleveland suburbs in Lake County and even Fairfax County, Virginia (outside of DC). In the SF Bay Area, Los Angeles County outside of the city, the Philadelphia suburbs, the NYC suburbs, the Boston suburbs and the Cook County (Chicago) suburbs the Democrats are the outright majority party. All over the nation, with the exception of a few blood red states, suburbs are trending in a Democratic direction. It has not fully played itself out, but we are going in the right direction.

Giulinai, to me, was a threat to that. He could have rolled back over a decade of Democratic gains in the suburbs, especially in the Northeast. He would have made our nominee have to scratch and fight to win states like New Jersey and California, which even Al Gore and John Kerry could take for granted. That would have taken away resources from traditional swing states like Ohio and Florida. Giuliani would have shamelessly played up his "moderate" RINO image in a general election campaign, and it would have been hard for our nominee to counter that message.

I am relieved that he has fizzled out. Thank you Republican primary voters.

[ecstatic]

1. A Giuliani presidency scared the $! out of me

:scared:

[physioex]

5. McCain, Romney, and Huckabee....

Ain't lookin that much better. It's between a warmonger and a religious zealot....

[neutron]

6. Frank Rich Predicted a Giuliani Victory

And Frank is always right about everything. Just ask him.

[saltpoint]

2. Nobody I know will miss "America's Mayor" one iota.

Agree with you -- he might have posed some serious problems for us.

I'm happy the GOP voters in Florida dumped his sorry hindend into the drink.

[Olney Blue]

3. Nice post, bluestateguy!

[gateley]

4. K&R -

[soothsayer]

7. eh, he was unelectable (but yes, the scariest of all!)

[Danger Mouse]

8. I was terrified of the possibility of a Rudy presidency.

Glad his campaign has gone belly-up.

[Hoof Hearted]

9. He was their best shot, but he never had a chance to make it out.

So it's lights out for them.

[OzarkDem]

10. On the mark, but I still worry about McCain

who also comes across as a moderate to uneducated suburban voters. Not as much glitz and celebrity as Rudy, fortunately, but he can play up the military hero angle.

[Eurobabe]

11. Well, any of his neocon backers are moving to McLame

tomorrow, so save your despair for a McCain presidency, should we have one. McLame is in some ways more dangerous than Rudith.

[Lucinda]

12. I was acutally hoping he would be the nominee. He doesn't hold up well to scrutiny. But

I can see your point. One down. Three more to go!

[saltpoint]

13. Kick.