Rudy vs. Obama 2008

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If the New York tabloids and press had not crushed Giuliani's candidacy as they did in Dec. 2007 with the stories about his courtship with his third wife and the Kerik mess, they would certainly have done so in the general.  No conservative backers, from Robertson to the most conservative VP candidate, could have salvaged his candidacy from that hailstorm of problems, and many wouldn't want to.  If conservative voters in Ohio and Florida cost McCain, a war hero and a steadfast pro-life voter, those states by staying at home, they would certainly have sat out on any ticket Giuliani headed up.  I think, in a general between Obama and Giuliani, after those stories that broke in Dec. 2007 break instead in July or August of 2008, Giuliani would try to find his way out of it by slinging more mud at Obama than McCain was willing to, and the election gets ugly very quickly, but Giuliani's image as a 9/11 "hero" is tarnished by all this, and he never pulls ahead in the polls.  Obama gets 380ish electoral votes in this one.