Déjà vu on Rudy Giuliani

Recently I saw a blog with a surprising poll result. Though the poll was taken in Israel, not here, so perhaps it is not worth considering (for Israelis, of course, do not vote in United States elections), it still struck me as peculiar that among the candidates for 2012 considered in the poll was Rudy Giuliani.

Now don't get me wrong. In my belief, Giuliani would make an excellent President. All the factors that influenced my decision to endorse him in the previous election cycle still operate in his favor. But it has become obvious that the Republican Party would never nominate him. (And he's not going to run as anything but a Republican.) I don't want to see Giulani become the 21^st-century Harold Stassen, running every 4 years but becoming increasingly ridiculous in everyone's eyes. And it is a distraction from other, more electable candidates, to have Giuliani's name included in such polls. It's a shame that it's come to this; if there were any reasonable chance of Rudy Giuliani's becoming the President in next year's election, I'd happily endorse him again. But let's not chase rainbows.