I suspect Josh Marshall speaks for many (including me) when he notes that now is an “appropriate moment to give thanks for something we can all be thankful for, even across our political divisions and support for contending candidates — that’s right, the collapsing campaign of Rudy Giuliani.”
In Iowa, where admittedly Rudy hasn’t made much of a run at it, he now appears on track to come in last place among the major candidates. And, to be clear, I’m here defining ‘major’ rather generously as including Ron Paul. In other words, sixth place.
In New Hampshire, Rudy is similarly dropping like a stone. He may still come in third ahead of Mike Huckabee, though they now seem to be roughly tied there.
Nationally, Rudy appears either tied with Huckabee or in a three or four way tie with Huckabee, Romney and McCain, depending on which of the very most recent polls you look at. And expect that number (to borrow the Army aphorism) not to survive first contact with his drubbing in Iowa and New Hampshire…. Even in his ‘firewall’ states like Florida, Rudy’s lead is rapidly diminishing.
This comes on the heels of polling evidence that the more Republicans voters see Giuliani, the less they like him.
I realize the Giuliani campaign claims to have a plan — premised almost exclusively on big victories in Florida in Feb. 5 states — but I just don’t see it. The thing about losing repeatedly is that one starts to look like a loser. That’s particularly true if an assumed frontrunner can’t actually win when people start voting — exacerbated if he finishes behind Ron Paul.
Apparently, the former mayor’s campaign doesn’t exactly see the stars aligning they way they’d hoped, so they’re moving on to Plan B: more war talk (via Greg Sargent).
Mayor Giuliani will announce a new four-point war strategy in New Hampshire today, an effort to refocus a primary campaign season for Republicans that has centered in recent weeks less on foreign affairs and more on immigration and domestic issues.
Specifically, Mr. Giuliani will call for a new military surge in Afghanistan, a change in the way America’s spies are promoted so that officers are rewarded for finding actionable intelligence and not just the number of agents they recruit, and a new war on Al Qaeda’s intricate network of Web sites, sites used both to communicate with its agents in the field and to recruit new jihadis.
Campaign officials reportedly declined to explain where the new troops for the Afghanistan surge would come from.
Josh concluded:
Whatever else you can say about Rudy, had he not tried to exploit 9/11 to build a third career as a presidential candidate, I have little doubt that the halo of 9/11 would have hovered over his head for the rest of his life and provided him a lifetime of fat residuals in the form of consulting work for Giuliani Partners. But what about now? What does Rudy now have to offer Gulf sheiks or Chinese princelings that they can’t get from a real consultancy? And if you’re a pharmaceutical company in trouble for pushing narcotics, is Rudy your guy?
Mr. Mayor, if you’re reading, I have three words for you: Vegas lounge act. Think about it.