Rudy's Lost Gamble

[km7368]

Rudy Giuliani announced his bid for the United States Presidency on February 5th, 2007. Oftentimes regarded as the "Voice of 9/11" for his leadership through the horrific events of September 11th, Giuliani was, at one time, regarded as a front-runner in the GOP. Many early polls showed Giuliani as dominant over McCain, Romney and other GOP candidates. For instance, a month ago in New York, Giuliani led McCain 45-18 in the polls, according to Politico.com. My, how the tables have turned.

Giuliani's troubles have escalated quickly with a questionable campaign strategy that can be safely summed up in one word: "Florida". While other candidates were going to bed in Ohio and waking up in Iowa, Giuliani decided to focus most of his time and campaign in the sunny Southern state, and the 57 delegates that come with it.

Slowly but surely, the consequences of Giuliani's strategy began to surface with the results in states such as Iowa, New Hampshire and Michigan. Landing in single digits in the early caucuses and primaries, Giuliani continued feverishly promising Florida the glory of his tax-cut plan, among other issue platforms. "We will win Florida," Giuliani said adamantly on Larry King Live this past Wednesday.

Optimism is in the eye of the beholder. Currently, Giuliani is tied in third place with Mike Hukabee in Florida, behind John McCain (with 27 percent of the vote) and Mitt Romney (holding 25 percent). The one state crucial to Giuliani's campaign is now one of many states leaning towards Giuliani's opposition. What went wrong?

To begin, focusing more effort on one state rather than others is understandable, especially in a state like Florida, where delegates come in high numbers and high demand. But to focus solely in one state, ignoring many others practically completely, seems foolish to me. Iowa and New Hampshire, for example, many not have as many delegates up for grabs, but campaigning in these states puts the candidate in the public eye for more reasons than one; they become more competitive in the public eye. Most all that I've heard about Giuliani as of late has involved his campaign strategy, and not much else.

Furthermore, Democracy is about campaigning to the people, not just to one state. Personally, it makes me question Giuliani's leadership ideals when he ignores so many smaller campaign stops and focuses solely on the big states. From a strategical standpoint, I somewhat understand...but in a land where everyone's vote is supposed to count, that's not saying much.

Come this Tuesday, we will see if Rudy's gamble pays off. His cards are still on the table. But from the look of it, we're about to see another Presidential candidate call it quits.

for more information check out:

http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0108/Rudys_precipitous_drop.html

http://cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/24/giuliani.florida/index.html

[OHdem10]

1. Not a Rudy Fan, but did Russert really have to read that

terrible quote from NYT.?