A great many Republicans are spending their time waiting around to hear whether potential candidates for president who have already made it clear they aren’t running will change their minds. But as much as some people really are on the edge of their seats hoping against hope that Chris Christie or Rick Perry, Sarah Palin, or even Paul Ryan will take the plunge, there are other potential candidates who are the only ones interested in their decisions.
One such example is that of George Pataki, the three-term New York governor who left his state and his party in such dismal shape when he fled Albany in January 2007 that both the 
Empire State and its bankrupt Republican party are still trying to recover from his incompetent reign. And yet, according to Politico, Pataki is attempting to float the idea of a run for the presidency. Of course, since no one else was wondering whether he would run, Pataki has been forced to raise the question himself.
Pataki is planning on spending much of the coming month in New Hampshire where he will talk about the national debt. One supposes that this topic interests him because he is probably tired of talking about the debts that New York state incurred during his governorship when he proved that “tax and spend” was a motto that could be applied to Republicans as well as Democrats.
Another non-candidate seeking to stir up interest in their non-candidacy is Rudy Giuliani. Despite the fact that virtually no one in the Republican Party is thinking about a reprise of the former New York City mayor’s disastrous 2008 presidential run, Giuliani mentioned that he was thinking about trying again on Meet the Press earlier this month. But even though that trial balloon crashed and burned like the Hindenburg, the Giuliani camp sent up another Zeppelin earlier this week in the form of a statement from Congressman Peter King who told the Washington Examiner that the former mayor is “very close to saying he’s going to run.”
Granted, his stature as a leader and a successful mayor gives Giuliani a rationale for a presidential run that the feckless Pataki lacks. But as poor as Giuliani’s chances of victory in the Republican primaries were in 2008, they would be far worse four years later. As thin as the GOP field may appear today, Giuliani has already proven that there is little appetite among Republicans for a northeastern mayor who was a moderate on social issues even if his stands on foreign affairs were exemplary.
Though there are some Republicans waiting for candidates who will never declare their intent to run for president, nobody is waiting for either Pataki or Giuliani except themselves.
