McCain, who announced in April of that year, was the immediate front-runner, then fell behind, largely because of the illegal immigration debate in the Senate (sound familiar?). He also ran short on cash in the late summer of 2007 (think Trump will have this problem?)
But Guliani had a number of damaging revelations already, most notably corruption with Bernie Kerick. So far, nothing has developed like that with Trump.
In fact, if anything McCain COPIED the Trump campaign by doing the talk show circuit and getting free press coverage for about two months until he reclaimed the lead in December 2008.
Guliani never, ever dominated every state the way Trump has. He led in one or two. The field also had two major jolts when Fred Thompson came in, then immediately crashed, and Mike Huckabee shot up in November.
If you want to compare Cruz to McCain (ideology aside) it's a huge stretch. McCain was early on the media darling, had been running his campaign for four years since Bush beat him, and had massive name recognition. So for him to go from 5-8 points into the lead wasn't nearly the challenge it is for Cruz.
Finally, Trump is 2:1 or 3:1 over nearest competitors. But the nearest competitor is never Cruz. He is 5:1 or 6:1 ahead of Cruz in most of these states. That's a far, far cry from where McCain was.
Giuliani’s problem was paramount, he was (other than being law & order, with a big caveat — he was open borders) a social leftist. Unlike Willard, at least he wasn’t trying to cover up the fact, only that he stated he would bring Conservatives aboard and appoint them once President.
It was too much a dichotomy to swallow. Why would you, if you occupied the highest office in the land, appoint and surround yourself with people with an agenda and ideology opposite yours ? He may very well have been sincere, but it made no logical sense. An administration that was doomed to failure.
Add to that, JimRob made it plain 8 years ago that he wasn’t going to cotton to Giuliani’s candidacy here and swiftly lowered the boom on his supporters. I only wish he had acted as swiftly with the far more dangerous Willard and his deranged brigade. At least Rudy would’ve run to win.
Chuckle!
Yeah?
Quote:In the beginning, few cracks were evident in the Giuliani campaign machine. He led the Republican field in polls conducted by The New York Times and CBS News throughout the summer, as his support peaked in August at 38 percent nationally in a four-way fight with Mr. McCain, Mr. Romney and Fred D. Thompson
Giuliani actually peaked at 38%, and that was in August, just like Trump actually. Funny enough, Giuliani had huge crowds in deep red, conservative south too, just like Trump did in Alabama.
Quote:
Mr. Giuliani often played to large crowds in New Hampshire and through the Deep South; everyone seemed to love his tough talk on terrorism. When Mr. McCain’s campaign nearly flat-lined last summer, as he ran low on money, Mr. Giuliani seemed poised to take advantage.
mobile.nytimes.com/2008/01/30/us/politics/30giuliani.html?pagewanted=all&referrer=