Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

Ethan Boivie at PoliticalDerby.com reports that Rudy Giuliani, campaigning in California, told supporters that he is the only Republican in the race with enough liberal appeal to carry left-leaning, electoral-vote-heavy states such as California and New York in the presidential election.

Giuliani, unlike most Republicans, is pro-choice and pro-gun control. Boivie says Giuliani "continues to walk the tight rope of appealing to enough conservatives to win primaries, while maintaining enough moderate and Democratic support to win the general election."

I think he's going to fall off that tightrope at some point.

Boivie says Giuliani might have a good reason to be welcoming Fred Thompson into the race:

While a Thompson run would certainly take some votes away from Giuliani, it may ultimately benefit Rudy. A batch of Republican candidates split the conservative vote in 2000, allowing the (seemingly) moderate Bush to clinch the nomination. Thompson could similarly split the ultra-conservative vote with Romney and the other more conservative candidates, helping Rudy to win the nomination.

That only works in Rudy's favor if the field remains crowded, but it's more likely that you'll see several of the second-tier candidates get out of the race, with the exception of Tom Tancredo and Ron Paul who, I suspect, will be in it until the convention.