The Brilliant Strategy Of Getting Nobody To Vote For Him

You can see the poll on the left. There's this idea in the media that Rudy Giuliani is somehow outfoxing his opponents, by consistently losing badly until Florida, when he'll suddenly become a hero and king again. Yesterday we had several pundits claim that the Michigan results were "great news for Rudy Giuliani."

OK, Rudy received 3% of the vote. In four primaries so far, he's finished 6th, out of the money (hard to give a place number in that wacky Wyoming primary), 4th, and 6th. And he's headed for another sixth-place finish in South Carolina. He's lost to Ron Paul at least twice. He's lost to Fred Thompson, who doesn't even know he's still running for President, THREE TIMES. Yesterday he almost lost to "Uncommitted". In Michigan he scored only 3,000 more votes than Dennis Kucinich.

Floridians are not a different species of American than other people. Giuliani spent the second-most money in New Hampshire and had a fairly robust under-the-radar campaign in Iowa and he got nowhere. The more he campaigns, the less he seems to be liked. His initial strategy was based on leading the national numbers and that is no longer the case. His Florida numbers are pretty much the same as everyone else's despite the fact that he's been alone there for two weeks, dumping money into the state. After South Carolina and Nevada Rudy will have company for ten days until the primary.

It's worth asking whether Rudy meets the criteria for future debates, not asking whether his super-secret strategy is working.