[KellyB]

Anyone else wondering why Rudolph W. Giuliani continues to tag along on the campaign trail with John McCain, even though Mr. Giuliani dropped out of the race a couple of days ago?

It was understandable when Mr. Giuliani quit on Wednesday night that he brought Mr. McCain on stage with him to bestow his endorsement. Having another warm body on stage allowed him to shift the focus from his own loss to a positive spin for Mr. McCain.

But then it seemed a little odd when Mr. Giuliani showed up for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s endorsement of Mr. McCain. While Mr. McCain spoke, Mr. Giuliani stood at his side; at one point the Governator was almost eclipsed behind them.

Then it was truly weird Thursday night on the “Tonight Show,” where Mr. McCain was the guest — with Mr. Giuliani still at his side and at one point was perched in the catbird seat next to Jay Leno.
Theories:

1. Mr. Giuliani doesn’t want to leave the limelight.
2. Mr. Giuliani doesn’t want to go home and face the letdown of no longer being on the trail and/or the potential difficulties in rebuilding his business.
3. Mr. McCain is running a trial balloon of Mr. Giuliani as his running mate.
This last theory seems the most implausible. It is hard to imagine that Mr. McCain, who is under assault from conservatives, would pick an East Coast liberal like Mr. Giuliani. And it would be too presumptuous to run around now as a potential ticket before you have locked up the nomination.

But with Mr. Leno last night, Mr. Giuliani didn’t reject out of hand the idea of becoming Mr. McCain’s running mate, he just rejected the idea that he was angling for it right now.

“No one runs as a running mate,” Mr. Giuliani said.
A strategist for the Giuliani campaign shared some thoughts with us. Most importantly, he said, Mr. Giuliani and Mr. McCain have developed a real friendship. And because of that friendship, he said, he believed that Mr. Giuliani and Mr. McCain had agreed earlier that each would support the other if one of them dropped out.

“I can’t tell you how many times that was taken into account, in message and strategy,” he said. During the debates, they laid off each other.
But even this Giuliani ally questioned how much this pictorial pairing is helping Mr. McCain in the face of conservative fury.

“McCain can’t be standing there with Arnold and Rudy,” he said. “He looks like his best friends are moderates and Democrats.”

But, he added a bit wistfully: “Far be it from me to criticize a campaign that was where they were six months ago, given where they are today.”
Let’s add one more theory. Mr. McCain likes traveling with buddies. He has served the wingman role himself, notably in 1996, when he traveled extensively with fellow veteran Bob Dole as Mr. Dole’s presidential campaign went down to defeat.

It’s part of the McCain image — that he is loyal to his friends, despite the political repercussions.


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