Rudy Giuliani,
who bet his presidential hopes on Florida only to come in
third, prepared to quit the race and endorse his friendliest
rival, John McCain.
The former New
York City mayor stopped short of announcing he was
stepping down, but delivered a valedictory speech that was
more farewell than fight-on.
Giuliani finished
a distant third to winner John McCain and close
second-place finisher Mitt Romney. Republican officials said
Giuliani would endorse McCain on Wednesday in
California. The officials spoke on condition of
anonymity in advance of the public announcement.
''I'm proud that
we chose to stay positive and to run a campaign of ideas
in an era of personal attacks, negative ads and cynical
spin,'' he said as supporters with tight smiles
crowded behind him.
''You don't
always win, but you can always try to do it right, and you
did.''
Asked directly if
he was dropping out of the race, Giuliani said only:
''I'm going to California.''
Republican
presidential candidates are scheduled to debate at the
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley
Wednesday night.
Tuesday's result
was a remarkable collapse for Giuliani. Last year, he
occupied the top of national polls and seemed destined to
turn conventional wisdom on end by running as a
moderate Republican who supported abortion rights,
some gay rights, and gun control in a party dominated
by Southern conservatives.
''Elections are
about fighting for a cause larger than ourselves,'' he
said at one point, echoing one of McCain's most popular
refrains.
The results
seriously decimated Giuliani's unconventional strategy,
which relied heavily on Florida to launch him into the
coast-to-coast February 5 nominating contests.
He largely
bypassed the early voting states, figuring that the early
states would produce multiple winners and no front-runner.
But Florida
proved to be less than hospitable. The state's top two
Republicans -- Sen. Mel Martinez and Gov. Charlie Crist --
endorsed McCain. And Giuliani, who once led in state
polls, saw his support swiftly erode.
Surveys of voters
leaving polling places Tuesday showed that Giuliani was
getting backing from some Hispanics, abortion rights
supporters, and people worried about terrorism, but
was not dominating in any area.
McCain,
addressing his own supporters moments later in Miami, gave
Giuliani a warm rhetorical embrace, a possible prologue to
accepting Giuliani's expected support.
''I want to thank
my dear friend, my dear friend Rudy Giuliani, who
invested his heart and soul in this primary and who
conducted himself with all the qualities of the
exceptional American leaders he truly is,'' McCain
said. ''Thank you, Rudy, for all you have added to this race
and for being an inspiration to me and millions of
Americans.''
Giuliani hung his
bid for the Republican presidential nomination on his
leadership. His stalwart performance as New York mayor in
the tense days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks earned him national magazine covers,
international accolades, and widespread praise.
In the end, as he
saluted his backers Tuesday night, Giuliani hardly
sounded wistful. But his remarks had the air of finality, of
a campaign that had run its course.
''The
responsibility of leadership doesn't end with a single
campaign, it goes on and you continue to fight for
it,'' Giuliani said. ''We ran a campaign that was
uplifting.''
Giuliani, 63,
first gained prominence as a crime-busting federal
prosecutor in Manhattan. During a nearly seven-year stretch
ending in 1989, Giuliani steered dozens of
high-profile cases to completion, garnering more than
4,000 convictions. He tangled with mob bosses, Wall
Street executives, and corrupt politicians -- and was never
afraid to invite the bright lights of TV cameras to
accompany his quests.
Giuliani's record
as a crime fighter helped propel his next career as a
politician, but it was not an immediate success. He lost the
first time he ran for mayor, in 1989, before winning
in 1993.
As mayor he
fostered a take-charge image by rushing to fires and crime
scenes to brief the press, but some critics felt he was more
concerned with taking credit from others for what
became a historic decline in the city's crime rate
during his tenure.
And while the
cleanup of New York in the 1990s helped the city take
advantage of the nation's economic boom, critics --
especially in minority communities -- complained that
Giuliani's tactics were too aggressive and trampled on
civil rights.
A bout with
prostate cancer and the very public breakup of his marriage
with second wife Donna Hanover -- she first learned he was
filing for divorce when he made the announcement at a
televised news conference -- forced Giuliani to
withdraw from a race for the U.S. Senate against
Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2000.
By the summer of
2001, public esteem for Giuliani was at a low ebb. On
the morning of September 11, Giuliani did what he always
did: rushed to the scene.
In the minutes,
hours, and days that followed, he presented a calm,
determined presence -- urging people not to panic, but
reminding them of the grim toll of the terrorist
attacks. The image of a dusty, sweaty Giuliani walking
near Ground Zero, surrounded by firefighters and police,
was seared into the national memory.
In December 2001,
Time magazine named him ''person of the year,''
and its cover showed Giuliani standing atop a skyscraper in
front of the New York City skyline with the label
''Rudy Giuliani -- tower of strength.''
In the years
after the attacks, that reputation helped launch a hugely
successful consulting business, and got him a major piece of
a Washington, D.C.-based law firm with a long
list of big corporate clients.
Yet, while
Giuliani has long been known as efficient and tough-minded,
he also can be brusque, rude, and occasionally harsh.
His past
associations in business and politics have come under
scrutiny. President George W. Bush, at Giuliani's
urging, nominated Bernard Kerik, the former New York
police commissioner and a onetime close associate of
Giuliani, to head the Homeland Security Department. Kerik
withdrew his nomination, and later pleaded guilty to a
misdemeanor of accepting a gift from a company
suspected of ties to organized crime.
In the final days
of his Florida campaign, the former mayor trailed badly
in polls but insisted he would win an upset victory. As the
actual votes were counted, only about one in six
Republican voters chose Giuliani.
With no working
strategy, no primary victories, and dwindling resources,
the mayor's third-place finish spelled the end of his
campaign, even if his crestfallen supporters couldn't
believe it.
''They'll be
sorry!'' a woman with a New York accent called out to the
mayor as he spoke. ''You sound like my mother,'' Giuliani
joked. (Devlin Barrett, AP)
