Quin, first, I do think the fact that he was battling cancer in 2000 at least should be taken into account, becuase even if he were gung ho about running from the start, it would have forced him to drop out. But even if you were to put that aside, there are a lot of reasons why this time is different. So far, Giuliani has been campaigning tirelessly for the nomination, and has displayed none of the tentativeness that categorized his abandoned U.S. Senate run. Also, in the case of the Senate, I don’t think it was a position that he really wanted as much as he wants to be president. Giuliani is a leader who likes to run things and serve in an executive capacity, part of it is because that’s what excites him and that’s what he’s good at, and part of it is that he has a big ego. Being a legislator, where you sit around in meetings and nothing gets done, simply isn’t a good fit for him. I think he decided to run for the Senate because he was a term-limited mayor and that position was open, and if anything, he relished the prospect of a high-profile race against Hillary, rather than feared it. But holding the top executive job in the world is something that is much more appealing to him. Also, something else changed since then–Sept. 11. I wrote about the implications of his personal connection to that event last week, and I think given that he knows as well as or better than anybody what the stakes are in this election, there’s simply no way he’ll let Clinton off easy. In this case, the past is not, in fact, prologue.
