Giuliani and Edwards quit race

The Republican and Democratic fields have contracted as both Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards quit the race for their party's presidential nomination. Giuliani, the former New York mayor, endorsed his one-time rival John McCain as he announced his withdrawal from the Republican race. Despite focusing his campaign on Florida and spending millions of dollars in the state, Giuliani finished a distant third behind McCain and Mitt Romney in Tuesday's primary.

Giuliani and McCain have frequently praised each other throughout the race. In his Florida victory speech McCain called the former New York Mayor his "dear friend" and thanked him for being an "inspiration to me and millions of Americans."

Political commentators are speculating as to what price Giuliani will exact from McCain for his backing. He is unlikely to become McCain's running mate; as the Reverend Al Sharpton once remarked, "whoever has Giuliani as their VP would have to hire a food-taster". With his legal background, Giuliani may ask for the position of Attorney General if McCain were to win the White House.

Meanwhile Edwards, the senator for North Carolina, used a pre-arranged speech on poverty in New Orleans to announce his departure from the Democratic race.

He had a promising start to his campaign, when he pushed Hillary Clinton into third place in the Iowa caucus, but he never captured the imagination of the public and his humiliation at the weekend in the South Carolina primary - he polled just 18 per cent in the state of his birth - was the final straw. He chose not to endorse either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

FIRST POSTED JANUARY 31, 2008