After a day’s worth of speculation, Republican Rudy Giuliani joined Democrat John Edwards as the latest to drop out of the presidential race.

The GOP candidate announced Wednesday, just hours after Edwards left the race, that he too would back out of the race and lend an endorsement to candidate John McCain.

Giuliani was criticized for looking past critical voting states and focusing his attention on Florida, where he finished a disappointing third place. He was also considered an underdog of sorts in the GOP by supporting issues such as tougher gun control, abortion and gay rights.

Matthew Streb, an associate professor of political science, believes Giuliani’s campaign left a lot to be questioned.

“Giuliani’s strategy to wait for Florida obviously failed,” he said. “He expected to do better in earlier primaries based on name recognition and 9/11 alone.

Giuliani’s strong suit was national security, but polls show that people are becoming increasingly more concerned with the economy and immigration, two issues that aren’t strengths of Giuliani’s.”

The announcement dropped just one more candidate out of the GOP race, leaving McCain, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee as the biggest remaining frontrunners heading into Super Tuesday, with Ron Paul trailing in fourth.

“Clearly McCain will benefit some from Giuliani’s endorsement, but endorsement or not, I don’t see how McCain loses the nomination at this point,” Streb said.

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