It’s not Giuliani time in Florida

Is it curtians for Rudy? The way things are looking in Florida this morning, Rudy’s goose is probably cooked. I’m sure as history moves along, the decision by the Rudy campaign to not actually work (Iowa, New Hampshire) will be chalked off to arrogance. Rudy thought he was so popular, so well known and much more qualified than the rest of the Republican candidates that he’d just sit out the majority of the early primaries. For me, our country surely didn’t need another ego maniac who feels that they “know it all” and are anointed. Our current President thinks God put him in the Presidency - Rudy would of thought that Rudy (small g-god) by sheer force and popularity put himself in the Presidency. Dangerous stuff.

His deep investment in one state and a one-dimensional message do not seem to have paid dividends. He needs to quit talking about 9 / 11 and dial 911. His numbers have dropped by half in the year he has campaigned here. The more he has wooed, the less he has won. His campaign may have always been doomed, given that he was unacceptable to so many other Republicans. But the final act seems sad - sputtering, stalling and dying like a bad engine on an old car. Could it be over before the fat lady sings ? If early-bird voters don’t save him and he comes in third here, will he get out of the race so he doesn’t suffer the indignity of losing New York, a scene so melodramatically implausible that even Verdi wouldn’t try to pull it off ? One top Democrat, shocked that Rudy had run a race so minimalist that it would make a front-porch campaign look expansive, wondered if it was really some ploy to pump up his business. And perhaps his low-energy windup was meant to maintain dignity for Giuliani Partners. At a Rudy rally in Boca on Thursday, there were snowbirds and transplanted New Yorkers. Some, naturally, loved Rudy and some, naturally, loathed him. Ed Wenger, 65, a retired aerospace executive who used to live in Long Island, hailed the former mayor as “fantastic. ” “He turned Times Square from a hooker’s paradise to Disneyland,” he said. Nearby, Norman Korowitz, 66, a snowbird, retired guidance counselor and Billary fan from Suffolk County, called Rudy “an optical illusion. ” “He’s Bernie Kerik’s partner,” he said. “And family values ? He makes Bill Clinton look like a young upstart.”