Giuliani and Edwards Concede Presidential Bids
By petebaja
@petebaja (516)
Mexico
January 30, 2008 2:04pm CST
Former Republican front runner Rudy Giuliani will give up his presidential campaign today. The former New York mayor, who comforted and inspired Americans during the 9/11 crisis of 2001, must be second guessing his strategy. He was noticeably absent for the key caucuses and primaries of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. He bet all his eggs on last night's Florida primaries. That didn't pan out too well as Sen. John McCain won handily and Gov. Mitt Romney finished second.
This leaves McCain as the clear front runner for the Republican ticket. Romney has unlimited funds (he has already spent $16 million of his own money into his campaign) and won't have any trouble going for the long haul. However, the momentum is definitely on the Arizona senator's favor.
On the democratic side, Sen. John Edwards called it quits early this morning. Florida gave the nod to Sen. Hillary Clinton, while giving Sen. Barack Obama enough votes to finish second. This was all she wrote for Edwards, who has not won a primary or caucus this political season. The former senator from North Carolina has no problems with fund raising, however, it's obvious that catching up with the delegate count against two formidable foes would have been a divisive and bitter battle (not to mention an impossible, uphill climb).
Clinton leads Obama in the delegate count for the dems, while McCain leads Romney for Republican delegates. If the general elections were held today, it would be Clinton versus McCain.
2 people like this
4 responses
@jormins (1223)
• United States
30 Jan 08
Obama actually leads in true delegates, but if you count the Super Delegates (who haven't voted yet and can change their mind) who pledged to Hillary before the race began then she has a lead. Super Tuesday is huge as Obama needs to stay close if he can't win more delegates.
It would be very nice if Edwards would endorse Obama. He has always been against PAC money which is why he ran out of funds and Hillary has always been big with the PAC money. To me its an obvious choice for Edwards but who knows, maybe before the debates tomorrow he'll announce something.
@jormins (1223)
• United States
31 Jan 08
Obama has won about 15 more delegates something like 48 to 35 or something like that, but the Dem's have something called a Super Delegate. Pretty much its a high ranking part official that votes at the convention and counts as a full delegate.
All these Super Delegates were/are pledged to Hillary from before the primaries even started but it doesn't necessarily mean they will all vote for Hillary. It would be seen as cheating (by many maybe not all) if Obama has more delegates but the Super Delegates sway it over to Hillary. It is a really screwed up system but basically the Democratic National Party. Its also real screwy how you can win the popular vote but lose in delegate count (Obama won 1 more delegate than Hillary in Nevada). Edwards too should have a handful of delegates he can throw around, prob not enough to sway anything though since he dropped out of the race before Super Tuesday. It is really a confusing process on the Dem side. The Rep's have it much easier system-wise.
@petebaja (516)
• Mexico
31 Jan 08
I heard something about Obama leading in the delegate count, but yet, I saw a statistic in the news this morning that showed Hillary with more. I'm confused about all these "true delegate" count as opposed to what? a phantom one? Can you explain this.
I know there are some states that are winner take all and some that are proportioned based on your vote count in the primaries. But what's the deal with "true" and "pledged"?
@petebaja (516)
• Mexico
2 Feb 08
Thanks for the explanation....I researched it and found out the same thing that you're explaining in this blog. It hardly sounds like a fair system the Dems are running for the primaries. And why would so many super delegates pledge to Hillary before the actual states' primaries even start?
@jormins (1223)
• United States
1 Feb 08
Edwards still controls his handful of delegates (notice he suspended his campaign) but its such a small amount it would be very rare that it would come into play.
I don't know if Giuliani has any delegates, his numbers were so low in the other states and its winner takes all in Florida so he might not have any, but if he did I would think he's brought them to McCain.
@petebaja (516)
• Mexico
30 Jan 08
I hope the Clintons aren't back in the White House. It will be like term limits never affected Bill. A constitutional amendment should be made to prevent spouses of former presidents (who have completed their two terms in office) to run for the Oval Office. Let's call it the Hillary Amendment.
@huppsterdave5125 (279)
• United States
30 Jan 08
Wow that kind of surprises me. At the start of theis thing I was alomost certain Rudy would remian a front runner throughout the race. I figure Edwards did not have much of a chance anyway. Where is Huckabee in all this on the Republican side? I feel that he is a pretty good candidate.
@petebaja (516)
• Mexico
30 Jan 08
I thought so too. It was going to be Giuliani versus Clinton in November. I guess that goes to show you how much the pollsters really know. I remember when Howard Dean was the favorite in '04 and Kerry was a little known senator. We all know what happened then.
Back in '92 Bill Clinton was a relative unknown and Paul Tsongas was the pollsters' favorite to win. Reality has a funny way of proving the so called "experts" wrong.
