Despite Open Field, Giuliani Stumbling In Florida

Sam Stein
The Huffington Post
January 16, 2008

Lost amid the celebration over Mitt Romney's win in the Michigan primary on Tuesday night was an equally noteworthy electoral result. Rudy Giuliani, the one-time frontrunner for the Republican nomination, placed sixth in the state. The three percent of the vote he received was just one point higher than that cast for "uncommitted." Even more remarkable, this was the second time in three primary elections that the former New York City mayor ended up behind five of his GOP competitors -- including Ron Paul.

Despite spending an estimated $40 million in his pursuit of the White House, Giuliani has nary a primary victory to show. His political prospects have dimmed sharply in the past few weeks even as the Republican election has remained unpredictably wide-open. Indeed, the fact that Giuliani still stands a chance of grabbing the nomination - if he could pull off a victory in the upcoming Florida election - is more a credit to the weakness of the GOP, observers say, than to Giuliani's particular strengths.

"His strategy, to be blunt, was a stupid strategy and sometimes stupid things work," said Larry Sabato a professor of political science at the University of Virginia. "If he wins Florida he will get a slingshot and everyone will call them brilliant, but in retrospect it was incredibly stupid of Giuliani not to pick one of the primaries. He could have easily have filled the slot that McCain filled in New Hampshire." ... ( read more )

Copyright © 2008 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.