Rudy Giuliani Closes in on Hillary Clinton

Odds on Rudy Giuliani winning the 2008 US Presidential election have been slashed to 3 to 1 while Hillary Clinton sits with 2 to 1 odds. Whereas Clinton was a clear favorite just one month ago, the oddsmakers now have Giuliani closing in fast.

This is Carrie Stroup reporting for Gambling911.com, the world leader in political betting trends.

Robert Robb of the Arizona Republic highlights why Giuliani may be gaining such steam.

"Substantively, Rudy Giuliani has the most interesting presidential candidacy thus far. Barack Obama has generated more electricity. At this point, however, his new politics is more a sentiment than a program. Giuliani, on the other hand, is trying to defy political gravity in the Republican primary. A person with as messy a personal life as he has had, and with his liberal views on social issues, isn't supposed to do well with the "values voters" who dominate GOP nomination politics."

Yet Giuliani continues to lead among Republican contenders in national polls. The latest average of the major polls has him at 28 percent. The nearest contender is John McCain, at 20 percent.

Giuliani's coup d'état came with his debating another Presidential hopeful, Ron Paul.

The battle lines have never been more clearly drawn than in Ron Paul’s exchange with ex-NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani during the South Carolina GOP Primary Debate on May 15, 2007, and the follow-up blogosphere ruckus that can only be labeled as a political feeding frenzy, writes Alex Wallenwein of OpedNews.com.

"On YouTube videos of the debate, you can see Ron Paul was answering a question about his views on foreign policy when Giuliani interrupts and berates him for arguing that 911 occurred at least in part because the US has been meddling in middle eastern affairs for too long and has “been bombing Iraq for ten years.” Rudy gets a little hot under the collar, states he has “never heard of such a thing” and demands an apology from Paul to the American people. Ron Paul calmly stands his ground and continues to explain his non-interventionist policy stance."

"The chances of Ron Paul maintaining his early gains in popularity after this Giuliani exchange are becoming somewhat iffy when heavy conservative guns such as Human Events Online offer a rundown of commentaries by what are widely regarded as conservative pundits depicting Paul as a tin foil hat-wearing, out of this world nut-job.

"In his CNN interview by Wolf Blitzer, Ron Paul demonstrated his presidential leadership credentials for all to see and hear. He confirmed that he in no way is “weak on defense” or anything of the sort. He explained that he actually voted for giving president Bush authority to go after Bin Laden in Afghanistan and maintains Bush should have stuck to that goal."

Ironically, the oddsmakers at Sportsbook.com only this week began to offer betting odds on Ron Paul and his chances of becoming the next US President. Paul is a staunch advocate on US citizens rights to gamble online, opposing Arizona Senator Jon Kyl's aggressive attempts to enforce online poker prohibition.

The odds of Ron Paul becoming the next President: 200 to 1.

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Carrie Stroup, Gambling911.com

Originally published May 21, 2007 12:48 pm ET