No more Rudy redux, expected to endorse McCain

Republican presidential primary candidate and former Mayor of New York City Rudy Giuliani’s concession speech this evening, after a third place finish in the Florida GOP primary, is being called indicative of an imminent withdrawal from the race. From Politics on the Hudson:

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani gave a last hurrah speech tonight following his third place showing in today’s Florida primary without officially announcing his withdrawal from the presidential race.

Giuliani is expected to officially announce his withdrawal tomorrow at a press conference in California announcing his endorsement Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

MyDD live-blogged his speech and wrote this:

Update [2008-1-29 21:25:28 by Todd Beeton]:He’s trying to get out with his dignity intact. I’d say it’s a close call.

“Thanks to Ron Paul too, he won every debate!”

He’s certainly showing more personality and passion in this speech than I’ve ever seen from him.

Haha. “We ran a campaign that was uplifting.” Wha-? “…a return to honesty and substance in our political discussion.” Huh?

Update [2008-1-29 21:26:4 by Jonathan Singer]: It’s not quite a Nixonian flameout, but I keep thinking I’m going to hear the words, “You’re not going to have Giuliani to kick around anymore…”

And, like other outlets, USA Today noted the past tense of his words Tuesday evening:

In remarks to supporters in Orlando, he referred to his candidacy repeatedly in the past tense — as though it was over. “We’ll stay involved and together we’ll make sure that we’ll do everything we can to hand our nation off to the next generation better than it was before,” he said.

UPDATE: Multiple outlets now reporting the same: Rudy will drop out and endorse Florida primary winner, John McCain.