Is this the end for Rudy Giuliani?

The Florida Primary is coming up, but for Rudy Giuliani it may be too little, too late. The Giuliani campaign is reaching its climax tomorrow when polls in Florida open. The Giuliani strategy has been unorthodox and risky. While Romney, Huckabee, and McCain have all won a primary, Giuliani has fallen back, both in the standings, and in the press. When this election began, Rudy Giuliani was the front-runner for the GOP. He ran on a campaign that centered around his experience as a leader during the September 11th attacks. His repeated references to his time as mayor during the aftermath of those attacks helped him to secure an early lead, but now the tides have turned and he is struggling to stay in the race. Giuliani sat out of these early races in order to focus on Florida and next week’s Super Tuesday. Throughout this whole process, Giuliani has stared critics in the face, stating that the election has no clear-cut winner and that his run for the presidency is still going strong. According to CNN, Giuliani assured supporters of his intention to fight at a rally in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Monday. “What happened is it has become a very competitive race…Four or five people-four, five-have a chance at getting the nomination. “And Florida will give a lot of definition to that.” Giuliani is hoping his risky campaign plans will pay off when the polls close in Florida on Tuesday, but the recent emergence of the other GOP candidates makes this an even more difficult feat. The Giuliani story is a really interesting one because if Giuliani fails to win the Republican nomination, he will have no one to blame but himself. Instead of riding the wave of popularity he held at the beginning of this process, Giuliani stepped aside. In doing so, he let John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee steal some of the spotlight. Going into tomorrow’s primary, Giuliani might act confident, but he’ll have to fight as an underdog rather than a favorite. He was careless. Even though the earlier primaries lack the electoral votes of Florida and Super Tuesday, historically, these states have been good indicators of the rest of the election. After the votes have been counted in Florida, Giuliani will either be right back in the thick of things, or he’ll be calling a press conference to announce his withdrawal from the presidential race. Will his unorthodox approach pay off, or have his critics been right from the beginning?


Information for this post was taken from the CNN Article: "Giuliani's Florida Strategy About to be Put to Test"
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/22/giuliani.florida/index.html?iref=newssearch