The hours before tonight’s Republican debate at the Reagan Library in California brought the wholly expected announcement from Rudy Giuliani that he was immediately dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing good friend John McCain. The feeling of resignation regarding his status in the race and the kind words for McCain flowed freely from Rudy.

“Today I am officially announcing my withdrawal as a candidate for President of the United States.�

When you run for president of the United States,’’ Mr. Giuliani said, “you spend a lot of time thinking about the qualities you would want for he chief executive of the United States: someone who can be trusted in times of crisis, someone with the clear vision about the challenges facing our nation, someone with the will and perseverance to get great goals accomplished.’’ “Obviously, I thought I was that person,’’ he said. “The voters made a different choice.�

“And so deciding who to endorse, in my particular case, is not difficult,’’ he said. “Because if I endorsed anyone else, you would say I was flip-flopping.’’

“I am hopeful that we can secure his nomination very soon, so we can unite our party and then begin the process of uniting our nation,’’ he said. “And do I am very proud to endorse my friend, and fellow Republican, a hero, John McCain of Arizona, for president of the United States of America.’’

“I’m going to campaign with John as much as he wants, or not,’’ Giuliani said.

His “friend.” A “hero.”  Strong tidings of admiration from a man who had been chummy with JMac all during the campaign, but was seen as being the likely recipient of McCain’s endorsement after the current frontrunner dropped out - not the flip-flop situation we are currently in. That’s what a crackpot strategy and a consistent fear of losing will do to a politician…

But looking at what the Giuliani endorsement means for both the broader race and McCain himself, it’s clear that today’s even will not be groundbreaking. No instant boost for JMac that will somehow  push him past Romney and his cash to the nomination before Super Tuesday. Nothing like that.

After all, Rudy got drubbed in this race for a reason. He became an afterthought, a strange piece of the ‘08 Republican puzzle that wasn’t necessarily worshiped by all comers as had been predicted since the beginning of last year. He isn’t loved by the deep-rooted GOP establishment whose unbridled support McCain so desperately wants. Rudy himself realized as much when he offered to campaign for McCain “as much as he wants, or not.” That “or not” comment is clearly aimed at states voting on the 5th like Tennessee or other blue collar locales where Giuliani’s backing could actually hurt.

Not that the endorsement is all bad; of course not. It adds to the growing feeling that the GOP establishment that had bet on everyone but McCain in this race must now coalesce behind JMac to preserve a clean primary process and support the eventual winner. Giuliani himself also gives the campaign another high profile surrogate to travel to key states like California and New Jersey and, most importantly, raise last-minute funds for Super Tuesday. Cash is tight in every camp - even Romney is debating whether to pull all Feb. 5th ads.