(NEWSER) – Rudy Giuliani is getting ready to enter the race for the Republican presidential nomination, according to Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, who cites "two reliable sources." The deep-pocketed former mayor of New York City has learned some lessons from his disastrous 2008 bid, when he withdrew to Florida after deciding he couldn't compete with both Mitt Romney and John McCain in New Hampshire, Kristol says.
	Notwithstanding two personally disappointing previous campaign starts, the possibility that Rudy Giuliani may join the ever-growing field of 2012 presidential hopefuls takes me right back to where I left off the day he dropped out of the 2008 presidential race — believing that America's Mayor is not only a well-rounded, candidate with broad appeal and name recognition but an extremely electable one, at that.
For voters seeking a proven leader and crisis manager...

The 2008 Presidential Race's best candidate was gunned down in Florida last night. Former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani was not a victim of a stray bullet fired by one of his many co-candidates or even by the so-called drive-by media. Rather, Hizzoner was the victim of his own gun.  In effect, as a result of a lazy, pick-and-choose primary state campaigning strategy, Rudy's own index finger pulled the trigger.

Giuliani's common sense stances on debating team topics that are un-referenced in our Constitution (abortion, alien rights, same-sex marriage, etc.) had not suffered anywhere near the predicted conservative backlash. Likewise, Rudy and his team were doing a remarkable job of minimizing personal and character attacks stemming from earlier marital issues.

Talk of the alleged corruption of a prominent mayoral appointee who later became a Giuliani business partner was also minimal. Even a vicious attack by the New York City firefighters union, insisting that the mayor's administration committed egregious errors in preparing FDNY for an unthinkable tragedy like September 11, 2001, were skillfully downplayed by Giuliani in debates and interviews.

That the New York Times renewed its long-standing vendetta against the mayor with a recent endorsement of John McCain was a wake-up call for pragmatic conservatives — a warning that our failure to stand behind the most overall conservative candidate in the field will surely result in a RINO or an avowed liberal being elected president. Such a left-handed "endorsement" from one of the world’s most respected left-wing newspapers would have made a great addition to the conservative talking points of Rudy’s campaign.

But as another New York icon, Yogi Berra, once said:

“It was like deja vu all over again.”

In September 1999, Mayor Giuliani had put together a campaign for New York’s open senate seat with a sizeable war chest — including a dig-deep contribution from this renegade scribe — and won the endorsement of both the state’s Republican and Conservative parties.

At the time 9/11 was no more than a cryptic Nostradamus quatrain.  However, even in the absence of the heroic record of his conduct on that sad day in September 2001, conservatives throughout the State of New York had no problem jumping on Rudy's bandwagon.

Giuliani was already admired for his fiscal conservatism and law-and-order track record.  As mayor he put the shine back on the the Big Apple and turned its books around in the process. Prior to serving as America’s Mayor it was Rudy, in his role as US Attorney, who prosecuted and imprisoned organized crime bigwigs like John Gotti.

Giuliani’s expected opponent in the upcoming senatorial race would undoubtedly be the former first lady with the Louis Vuitton carpetbag full of pants suits, a recent arrival to tony Chappaqua, NY from Arkansas via Washington, DC.  It would have been close but, if nothing else, it would have sucked most, if not all of the residual hot air from the Clinton family balloon. Mayor Giuliani, however, was suddenly forced to quit the race to pursue urgent treatment for prostate cancer.

Second-time supporters — we again dug deep to be among Rudy’s first presidential campaign contributors — reckoned that the healthy, feisty ex-mayor would fight tooth and nail this time around to make up for his short-lived run for the US Senate.

Not merely because of the importance of preventing future 9/11’s but because the aspiring interloper who used our Senate seat purely as a stepping stone was running again and she appeared destined to end up in the Oval Office in the absence of a compelling competitor from within her own party.

Sadly, today, even the mayor's not-so-conservative position on gun control has been proven correct:  You can't shoot yourself with your own gun if you're not allowed to have a gun.