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If you watched Meet the Press last weekend, chances are you noticed how demented Rudy Giuliani seemed when he kept talking about the Florida primary. Tim Russert would ask about Giuliani’s flagging numbers in New Hampshire, Iowa, and South Carolina, and Giuliani would just reply something along the lines of: “FLORIDA! FLORIDA! FLORIDA!” Giuliani has always been banking on his lead there to overcome any shortcomings in primaries that come earlier, but last weekend he seemed a little bonkers about it. And USA Today reports today that he’s finally changing his strategy.
Instead of emulating former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali’s rope-a-dope strategy and letting his opponents tire themselves out in contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, the former New York mayor has had to start swinging hard in those states.
He’s buying more ads in New Hampshire and hoping to shorten Romney’s thirteen-point lead but staying quiet about it because he doesn’t want to look vulnerable if he can’t pull it off. This whole story made us realize that we should be reading USA Today more frequently. Not for the political analysis, really, but more for the writing. That Muhammad Ali metaphor was practically Shakespearean!
Giuliani shifts tactics, goes on offensive [USAT]
Update: According to one poll, Giuliani has even lost his lead in Florida.
