We are all progressive bloggers on this site and as such that makes us savvy and intelligent followers of our political process. That is why we need not stretch our brains too thin to get them wrapped around hidden agenda the core intent of Republican Florida Gov. Crist interference into the Democratic Presidential Nominating process. What is disturbing is the lack of savvy and intelligent understanding of Democratic Michigan Governor Granholm's participation in Crist's scheme. On the surface their jointly declared call for a do-over primary sounds only fair. The shoe drops however when Crist clarifies that his state will not pay for the new primary!
MSNBC is reporting (no link yet) as well as many (trusted) folks by email that not only is Rudy done, he will endorse John McCain tomorrow in California.
Whew! America and the world dodged a bullet there. More on this tomorrow and then you'll never have to read me write about Rudy again. Ever.
We're now but three short hours away from the Giuliani campaign losing the last shred of any probable rationale for staying the race.
Of course, we may also learn that Rudy's "strategy" was to not actually contest any states at all. Sadly, if they were to make this claim, there are probably plenty of media folks who would buy it.
11 hours from now, the polls in the Florida panhandle, which is in the Central Time Zone, will close and so will Rudy Giuliani's campaign for president. The only thing open to debate is whether he will drop out tonight after losing by double digits to both John McCain and Mitt Romney, tomorrow morning or if he will put himself through the humiliation of losing to McCain all over the country, including his home state of New York, on February 5th. Rudy himself has been dropping hints in the past few days that tonight is the night that he packs it in.
Rudy Giuliani, with his political life hanging in the balance here, hinted broadly Monday that he could end his presidential bid as soon as Wednesday.
Asked by reporters on his campaign jet to reflect on the uphill road ahead if he loses Tuesday's Florida Republican primary, Giuliani said, "When it's Wednesday morning, we will make a decision. The reality is that voting hasn't even started yet. I believe we are going to win."
But the former mayor also made clear the primary would mark a critical crossroads for his flagging campaign here, which has seen his poll numbers sink from first place to a distant third.
...
Giuliani, while sounding upbeat, declined to offer a simple yes when asked if he would be attending a major GOP debate tomorrow in California.
"We fully intend to participate in the debate," he said as aides hustled him away.
Take this to the bank. Rudy Giuliani will not be on stage at that debate. He's going to get crushed tonight in Florida. His campaign has been burning through cash like crazy down there only to see his numbers continue to slide. Donors are either maxed out or no longer interested.
"We are going to California," Carbonetti told me a few minutes ago at Wolfie Cohen's Rascal House in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida where Rudy shook hands with voters and ate cereal.
I'm watching Rudy Giuliani on ABC's This Week. He's sitting in front of about two dozen smiling but rather lackluster supporters wearing I (heart) Rudy shirts and holding signs that say "Florida is Rudy Country." I can't say that I've ever seen such a thing on one of the Sunday chat shows. This isn't College Football Game Day, it's a show that used to be hosted by David Brinkley, for cryin' out loud. Who at ABC signed off on this? And just how pathetic does it look for the Rudy campaign that they have to stage manage a rather straight forward talk show spot in such a way that says "Look! There are some people that still support Rudy!" And the kicker? It honestly appears that Rudy is wearing eyeliner. Really. And not just a little bit. He looks like some creepy emo kid about 40 years past his prime and wearing a suit.
As Rudy Giuliani flounders through the Florida Panhandle, he finds his poker hand desperately short of the staple southern Republican "Guns" and "Gays" cards. What to do? Apparently, he makes a play with the only quasi plausible card he feels he has left, namely the "God" card. It's a stretch for sure, given his, ahem, thrice married status, but give him credit. He's doing it with a straight face and that can't be easy.
- "Fought on the front lines of the culture wars and won: He cleaned up Times Square, driving out prostitutes and pornography, making it safe for families."
- "Pioneered initiatives that increased adoptions by 113 %, while the number of abortions in New York City fell faster than the national average."
- "Fought to stop the use of public funds for the desecration of religious symbols and values."
Awesome.
I do have to give his campaign an "A" for effort though. As a Panhandle native, I have to say that this piece is very weel done and perfectly suited to North Florida Republicans. Not that it will matter much. In any other year, Rudy would probably do fairly well in a GOP primary in the panhandle. Most folks don't really know all that much about our former Mayor and it's not like people in the panhandle don't know anything about messy divorces, let alone, ya know, marrying a cousin. Rudy's tough guy "Your wife will never wear a burkha on my watch" swagger would definitely have some appeal. This year though, he has to contend with McCain who many feel is a more authentic warmonger as well as Rev. Chuckabee who looks like, sounds like and prays like folks in North Florida do. (For the record, I really don't see Romney being a factor up there. He might as well have horns and a big, fat Mormon tail as far as most North Floridians are concerned.)
It's just a bad year to be Rudy Giuliani in the deep, deep south. But, give the guy credit for tryin' like hell to connect.
The New York Republican establishment has a lot invested in Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign. They had hoped that his presence at the top of the ticket in November would help them with downticket races across the state. They had hoped that a strong national showing by Rudy would show that the New York Republican party was somehow still a relevant entity. What they seem to have forgotten is that the more people get to know Rudy, the less they like him. We've seen this phenomena over and over. Giuliani spent a bunch of money in New Hampshire back in November and December and spent quite a bit of time there. His numbers in the Granite State tanked. He spent plenty of money early in South Carolina. His numbers tanked. He's now putting all his chips on Florida, spending what's left of his campaign cash on advertising and criss crossing the Sunshine State in a frenzy. Guess what? His numbers are tanking. Again.
Now it looks as if he could lose, if he's even still a candidate on February 5th, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Rudy's entire rationale, aside from the "President of 9/11" nonsense, was that he was the Republican that could put large coastal states in play. Now it looks as if he may not even be able to win them in a Republican primary.
And his New York Republican backers are starting to freak.
For months, the Republican establishment in New York and New Jersey marched nearly in lock step behind Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former hometown mayor they were confident would become their party's nominee for president.
But as Mr. Giuliani has plummeted from first to fourth - or worse - in some national polls, as he finished near the bottom of the pack in the nation's earliest primaries, and as his lead evaporated even in Florida, the state on which he has gambled the most time and money, those Republican leaders are verging toward a grim new consensus:
If Mr. Giuliani loses in the Florida primary on Jan. 29, they say, he may even have trouble defeating the rivals who are encroaching on his own backyard.
...
But if Mr. Giuliani is relegated to a distant second or worse in Florida, even some of his supporters acknowledge that New York's primary one week later would most likely be up for grabs, with Senator John McCain of Arizona and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts being Mr. Giuliani's strongest rivals. Like Mr. Giuliani, both are fielding full delegate slates in all 29 of the state's Congressional districts.
"If he carries Florida, he carries New York," said Fred Siegel, a Cooper Union historian who has served as an adviser to the former mayor and written a largely admiring biography of him. But winning Florida would require "a miraculous comeback," he said, adding: "I wouldn't bet on it."
...
A senior Republican strategist, who is allied with Mr. Giuliani and is working with Republican legislative candidates in New York, said Mr. Giuliani's decision to circumvent the early primaries was a "big gamble" that for the moment looked in danger of failing.
"Who knows if it will work," said the strategist, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he had not been authorized by the campaign to speak publicly. "But the danger is what you are seeing now. We're obviously concerned."
And don't think for a second that the McCain folks haven't taken notice.
On Wednesday, Mr. McCain vowed to compete hard in New York. "I'm going there a lot for money," he said. "I ought to go there for votes."
Things are about to get even tougher for Rudy Giuliani in Florida. The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) are sending their "Fire Brigade" to Florida to follow Rudy around and let Sunshine state voters know their rather low opinion of him. (Side note: Pity poor Liz. She got sent to my hometown to see all this close up.)
Veteran 9/11 Fire Fighters/FDNY Members Head to Florida to Take On Giuliani's 9/11 Myth
The IAFF is sending former New York City fire fighters and family members of IAFF fire fighters killed in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center to follow former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani as he campaigns in the state.
This "Fire Brigade" will expose Giuliani's trumped-up 9/11 credentials as a myth.
"This is about the judgment of our country's next president," says IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger. "Voters in Florida, where Rudy has pinned his hopes for his election, need to know Giuliani's record of poor judgment to understand why we don't believe he's nearly qualified to be our next president of the United States."
Jim Riches, a newly retired FDNY Deputy Chief, will lead the IAFF Fire Brigade.
"No one knows better than fire fighters who were at the World Trade Center that Giuliani failed to prepare first responders before 9/11, and that he is totally unprepared to become our commander-in-chief," says Riches, who responded on 9/11 and lost his fire fighter son, Jimmy Riches, at Ground Zero. "We object to Giuliani using 9/11 as his calling card in this campaign. He was an utter failure that day, and in the days and months leading up to the attack."
It's not getting any better for Rudy today. Not only is he tied in his home state with a guy who basically had to sell his email list for money to even keep going, now we find out that he has fallen to fourth place in his firewall-do-or-die-absolutely-have-to-win-it state of Florida.
A new Datamar poll in Florida finds Mike Huckabee leading the Republican presidential primary race with 24% support, followed by Mitt Romney at 20%, Sen. John McCain at 18% and Rudy Giuliani now back in fourth place at 16%.
Two months ago, Giuliani led the GOP race. With little chance of winning the other early states, he has been campaigning nearly non-stop in Florida for several weeks.
This is the kind of epic collapse that people will be studying for years to come. Simply stunning.
This is the ad Rudy hopes will save him in Florida. Azi says that the campaign will actually air this spot during the Super Bowl in Florida. This would be quite a bold move as the Florida primary is on January 29th and the Super Bowl on February 3rd.
Shorter version: "The media says my campaign is tanking. They are bad people. Super Bowl. Bad stuff. War. Be afraid. Help me, Florida-Wan-Kenobi. You're my only hope."
As Rudy Giuliani flounders through the Florida Panhandle, he finds his poker hand desperately short of the staple southern Republican "Guns" and "Gays" cards. What to do? Apparently, he makes a play with the only quasi plausible card he feels he has left, namely the "God" card. It's a stretch for sure, given his, ahem, thrice married status, but give him credit. He's doing it with a straight face and that can't be easy.
