Greg Sargent quotes John Edwards as saying:

“If Mayor Giuliani believes that what President Bush has done is good, and wants to embrace it and run a campaign for the Presidency saying, ‘I will give you four more years of what this president has given you,’ then he’s allowed to do that. He’ll never be elected President of the United States, but he’s allowed to do that.”

I think that Edwards is right about that. Most Americans strongly, strongly disapprove of George W. Bush.

It would be wise for Giuliani to present himself as the national security candidate, while at the same time distancing himself from Bush on other issues (and the way the war in Iraq was executed of course). He should embrace Bush’s “tough on terror” message (as to be able to appeal to ‘the conservative base’), but he must criticize Bush at the same time.

If people get the impression that Giuliani is many ways just a George W. Bush from New York, he will not win the national elections.