The following should be read as a fictional work, that is until is all becomes true.

A lot of hand wringing took place before the Republican state chairman election about whether one of the candidates was a proxy for McCain. Lots of readers commented that was not the case. It looks like they might have been right.

The PR firm owned by the husband of the purported McCain proxy is now working for Rudy Giuliani. One of the primary handlers in Pima County for the candidate for state chair looks like she might be lining up behind Rudy. Her position as a vice chair of the county party should be helpful to the Giuliani effort in Arizona.

Which all brings us to the point of this post. The real threat to the McCain candidacy is not a certain district chairman in central Phoenix or the state party chairman but actually the Rudy Giuliani campaign. McCain was never really counting on the far-far right of the party. The 1 or 2 percent behind Duncan Hunter was not going to make or break his candidacy. But the great middle of the party that is seriously looking at Giuliani, now there is a threat to the aspirations of the senator from Arizona.

Rudy Giuliani mentions Ronald Reagan when he talks in public but we suspect he will more likely carry the Rockefeller banner if elected. John McCain is quickly wining the title of Bob Dole of 2008. Mitt Romney has already lined up some heavyweights and is attracting interest among some of the grassroots as the only viable alternative to Giuliani or McCain.

Even though it is still early some of the blogs are lining up behind particular candidates. A blog supposedly run by former “Mafia Hit Men” seems to be lining up behind McCain. (I wonder if they can document that “500 hits” per day.) Look for a blog that served as a front for the Kyl campaign to get behind Rudy any day. Espresso Pundit will wait for the Arizona Republic to pick their favorite Republican and then Greg will choose someone else. Sonoran Alliance has many different contributors but I imagine that we will look for the most conservative candidate that has some chance of actually winning the party nomination. But as Rush said today it is still early and someone could come out of nowhere (i.e. 1976.)

BTW – When did Sean Hannity become Rudy’s campaign manager? I missed the announcement.