President 2012: Bill Kristol Says Rudy Giuliani is Running

I’m told by two reliable sources that Rudy Giuliani intends to run for the GOP nomination for president in 2012. He may throw his hat in the ring soon.

Rudy’s theory of the race: In the fall of 2007, he decided he couldn’t compete with both Mitt Romney and John McCain in New Hampshire, and disastrously decided to try to pull back there and pitch his tent in Florida. This year, he’ll commit everything to New Hampshire, where he thinks he has a good shot at beating Romney—whom he criticized there earlier this week. He then thinks he can beat whichever more socially conservative candidate(s) is left by winning what are still likely to be winner-take-all primaries in big states like California, New York, and New Jersey.

I will be making some calls. Stay tuned…..

Former New Yory City mayor, Rudy Giuliani talks about how first responders saved thousands of lives at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 during the N.J. Hall of Fame during the induction ceremony at New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, N.J., Sunday, June 5, 2011

Rudy has been saying this over and over but does anyone REALLY believe him?

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said today he is pondering whether to run again for the presidency and will decide by the end of summer.

If he does run, he said, he would “do it the right way” this time and spend more time on person-to-person campaigning in New Hampshire.

In 2008, Giuliani led in the polls at various times and was sometimes described as the front-runner. But he made little effort in first-caucus state of Iowa, eventually pulled most of his advertising out of the first-primary state New Hampshire, and focused on Florida, where his campaign collapsed.

Giuliani placed fourth in the 2008 New Hampshire primary after doing little campaigning here. He vowed to run differently if he decides to jump into the 2012 race.

“The impression was we didn”t spend a lot of time here because we didn”t do it the right way,” Giuliani said. “We were spending so much time trying to raise money that we forgot about the politics.”

This time, Giuliani pledged to run a more retail-style campaign. “Much more talking to people, meeting with them, getting their ideas,” Giuliani said.

This was his seventh visit to New Hampshire in a year.

No bat signal from Gotham yet. My bet Rudy is waiting for Palin to jump in or not. If Sarah is IN, so is Rudy.

The key quote:

“I would like to see a Republican defeat President Obama,” Giuliani said. “If I thought someone else had a better chance of doing that than me, I”d probably end up supporting that person. If I thought I had the best chance, I’d be more inclined to do it.”