Rudy Giuliani 2008 presidential campaign the Florida primary, Giuliani's campaign indicated he would withdraw from the race. On January 29, 2008, Giuliani exited the race and endorsed the eventual Republican nominee John McCain. Giuliani's public profile started to rise when he was appointed as the United States Associate Attorney General by President Ronald Reagan. He held the position from 1981 to 1983, when he was appointed United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. He held this post until 1989, when he resigned to run his first campaign for Mayor of New York City. He lost the race but won four years later,
Rudy Giuliani be one of McCain's most active surrogates during the remainder of McCain's eventually unsuccessful campaign. Following the end of his presidential campaign, Giuliani's "high appearance fees dropped like a stone." He returned to work at both Giuliani Partners and Bracewell & Giuliani. Giuliani explored hosting a syndicated radio show, and was reported to be in talks with Westwood One about replacing Bill O'Reilly before that position went to Fred Thompson (another unsuccessful '08 GOP Presidential primary candidate). During the March 2009 AIG bonus payments controversy, Giuliani called for U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to step down and said that the