Rudy

If the polls are correct, tonight's results in the Florida Republican primary should signal the demise or, at the very least, irrelevance of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani's campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. Giuliani's strategy consisted of avoiding the early caucuses and primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan, and South Carolina and staking everything on Florida's closed primary, with the idea of establishing momentum, leading into Super Tuesday. Unfortunately, the emergence of Sen. John McCain and former governor Mitt Romney in the early primaries and caucuses has made this a two man race and pushed Giuliani to the level of second tier candidate. That left him running even with former governor Mike Huckabee and barely ahead of Rep. Ron Paul. The truth is that Giuliani had little to offer beyond 9-11 and, with his somewhat dubious private life, never quite endeared himself to the Republican Party's base, social conservatives and evangelical Christians.