Edwards, Giuliani ending presidential bids
by The Associated Press on Jan. 30, 2008, under Elections, Nation/World, Special
TOP: Guiliani talks to supporters in Miami, Monday, Jan. 28. BOTTOM: Edwards campaigns in Minnesota on Tuesday, Jan. 29.
The field is narrowing.
Both Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards are to announce today they are pulling out of their respective presidential races.
Democrat Edwards is exiting the presidential race Wednesday, ending a scrappy underdog bid in which he steered his rivals toward progressive ideals while grappling with family hardship that roused voters’ sympathies but never diverted his campaign, The Associated Press has learned.
And former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, once the Republican presidential front-runner thanks to his status as “America’s Mayor,” suffered a debilitating defeat in Tuesday’s Florida primary. He prepared Wednesday to quit the race and endorse his friendliest rival, John McCain.
Giuliani stopped short of announcing he was stepping down, but delivered a valedictory speech that was more farewell than fight-on.
The former mayor finished a distant third to the winner, McCain, and close second-place finisher Mitt Romney. Republican officials said Giuliani would endorse McCain on Wednesday in California. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the public announcement.
“I’m proud that we chose to stay positive and to run a campaign of ideas in an era of personal attacks, negative ads and cynical spin,” Giuliani said as supporters with tight smiles crowded behind him. “You don’t always win, but you can always try to do it right, and you did.”
Asked directly whether he was dropping out of the race, Giuliani said only: “I’m going to California.”
Republican presidential candidates were scheduled to debate at the Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley on Wednesday night.
Edwards notified a close circle of senior advisers that he planned to make the announcement at an event in New Orleans, at 11 a.m. Tucson time, that had been billed as a speech on poverty, according to two of his advisers. The decision came after Edwards lost the four states to hold nominating contests so far to rivals who stole the spotlight from the beginning — Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama.
The former North Carolina senator will not immediately endorse either candidate in what is now a two-person race for the Democratic nomination, said one adviser, who spoke on a condition of anonymity in advance of the announcement.
Edwards waged a spirited top-tier campaign against the two better-funded rivals, even as he dealt with the stunning blow of his wife’s recurring cancer diagnosis. In a dramatic news conference last March, the couple announced that the breast cancer that she thought she had beaten had returned, but they would continue the campaign.
Their decision sparked a debate about family duty and public service. But Elizabeth Edwards remained a forceful advocate for her husband, and she was often surrounded at campaign events by well-wishers and emotional survivors cheering her on.
