Orlando, Fla. — “If you listen to my opponents, it’s getting kind of nasty,” Rudy Giuliani tells a group — truth be told, a pretty small group — of supporters who have come to a “Women for Rudy” rally at the Rosen Centre Hotel, situated among the amusement parks and rows of hotels a few miles from the Orlando airport. “Governor Romney has accused Senator McCain of being dishonest, and Senator McCain has accused Governor Romney of being in favor of a timetable for retreat, or something like that. I’m not exactly sure of the charges going back and forth, but we don’t want to become like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, right?”
NOOOOOO! yells the crowd.
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“If I understand the debate,” Giuliani continues, “the debate is that Sen. McCain doesn’t believe Governor Romney has enough national-security experience, and Governor Romney doesn’t think that Sen. McCain has enough experience on the economy. Well, you know something? I’ve got both. That’s why I’m the best choice.”
More cheers. But you know the Giuliani campaign — the campaign that was the national frontrunner for nearly all of 2007 — is in trouble when Giuliani seeks to define himself, not by his own record, but by the two frontrunners here in Florida, John McCain and Mitt Romney. You don’t like Candidate Number One or Candidate Number Two? Well, give me a try! And you really know the campaign is in trouble when Giuliani, the archetypal man-in-charge with an extraordinary record of accomplishment in New York City, morphs into the John Edwards of the GOP race, tut-tutting the bickering between the two leaders. But that’s the way things are going for the mayor here in Florida.
The RealClearPolitics average of polls counted 41 surveys taken in Florida between February 25, 2007 and December 2, 2007. Giuliani led in every one of them, by margins as high as 23 points. And not just a long time ago — in one CNN survey taken in the last week of November, Giuliani led by 21 points. And yet today — 60 days later — Giuliani is nearly 10 points behind the frontrunners.
