Rudy Jumps In

It's on.

America's Mayor is looking to upgrade his nationwide executive status from honorary to official.

In a sign that he's serious about running for the White House, the two-term mayor was filing a so-called "statement of candidacy" with the Federal Election Commission. In the process, he was eliminating the phrase "testing the waters" from earlier paperwork establishing his exploratory committee, said an official close to Giuliani's campaign.

When Giuliani named Patrick Ruffini his in-house blog guru, I upgraded the candidate to bubble status (yes, I'm sure it made his day), alongside Romney and Huckabee on my personal roster of genuinely viable candidates for the nomination.  Now that he's officially in the hunt, I can't help but call for the likability dream team ticket of Romney-Giuliani (in that order).

Both will get pushback on some social issues on the road to the nomination, but I don't think the prospective pairing would lose an appreciable portion even of litmus-testing Republicans due to voter apathy.  Mitt and Rudy are the two most agreeable, confident, inspiring, and intelligent characters in the whole broad lineup; the visual, logical, and emotional contrast between the two of them and [pick your two favorite Democratic contenders] would be genuinely startling.  Plus, they've got something that precious few candidates on either side have: experience as political executives.

Of the 25 or so declared or presumptive candidates, only 5 others enjoy that advantage (Huckabee, Thompson, and Gilmore on the right; and Vilsack and Richardson on the left).  Like a plurality of the bi-partisan pack, each of the three frontrunning Democrats come from Senatorial backgrounds (albeit brief ones, with an average tenure of less than 5 years).  With the budget-setting, crime-stopping, terrorist-defying, mob-busting, tax-reducing, deep blue-state originating dream team in place, not only would the comparison of resumes, philosophies, and charismatic personae become increasingly sharp with a Mitt-Rudy combo, but the Democrats would suddenly have to throw at least a few dollars around in the northeast.

Elsewhere:  Pajamas Media, Hot Air, Join Rudy 2008

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Update:   Speaking of my fantasy ticket's blog gurus, Stephen Smith, Governor Romney's new media chieftain, continues to earn his keep.  As of today, Mitt is officially the first Presidential candidate with a Facebook profile.  Facebook members can access it here.