Rudy Giuliani Seriously Considering A Second Presidential Run

Rumors have been swirling around for some time now that Rudy Giuliani was considering second Presidential run. The former mayor of New York City first hinted at the idea of running a few weeks ago when he spoke at the Republican Lawyers Association 12th Annual National Policy Conference: 

Giuliani took only one question following his half-hour speech. Asked whether he had decided to launch a 2012 White House bid, he said “not yet,” but that it’s a possibility.

“I will sure think about it. … It’s too early and I want to see how it all develops,” he answered. “My major goal is to elect a Republican in 2012. If it turns out that I’m the best one to do that, I can probably be talked into doing it or convince myself to do it,” he said.

“If I thought somebody else had a better chance of doing it, I would be a very enthusiastic supporter of somebody else,” he added.

Now it appears he's gone from "I'm not sure yet" to "I probably will" for 2012:

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, whose presidential campaign fizzled in 2008, is leaning toward another race for the White House, according to a close associate.  New York Republican Rep. Peter King, who has known Giuliani for more than 40 years, says the former mayor “is very close to saying he’s going to run.”

“If he were to make the decision today, he would run,” says King.

Speaking at a dinner with reporters in Washington, King, who was an enthusiastic Giuliani supporter in 2008, said the former mayor has been quietly lining up support and exploring strategy. Giuliani has also examined the mistakes his campaign made in ’08, when he did not seriously compete in a contest until the Florida primary, by which time he was hopelessly behind in the race.

If Rudy runs, he will have a very difficult time from the very moment his campaign starts. With so many high profile candidates already in the race or very close to jumping into the race, Rudy will have hard time building up his campaign war chest since most of the big money donors have already made commitments to support other candidates. 

Moreover, he has no organizational structure and it will take a while to build a efficient, well organized campaign team across the country. A candidate can't afford to lose time in getting organized especially when facing off with campaigns who have established an intimidating organizational team like Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney. 

Then there's strategy. Rudy will have to come up with an entirely new game plan if he is in it to win. In 2008, Rudy decided to apply an untried theory that a candidate can become the front runner of a presidential campaign by skipping New Hampshire and Iowa, win Florida and go on to win many states on Super Tuesday. I'm not sure if he has a game plan in place for 2012. If he doesn't, he better think of one soon.