by Mark Silva
BOCA RATON, Fla. -- There's a thick band of storm clouds amassing out here in the Everglades, where suburban South Florida has busted the limits of environmentally sound development. And clouds are gathering over the Republican debate coming here tomorrow.
Our friends at the St. Petersburg Times this afternoon are reporting online the results of a new Florida poll showing Arizona Sen. John McCain drawing 25 percent of Florida Republicans surveyed this week, with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney pulling 23 percent.
The real news here: Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York, pulled only 15 percent of those surveyed Jan. 20-22 -- tied with Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas.
This is in a state that Giuliani must win to make bona fide his big-state primary campaign strategy, a state in which all four of these Republicans were virtually tied in a Jan. 14 survey by Quinnipiac University and where Giuliani held a solid lead over his rivals early last year.
Elliot Bundy, spokesman for the Giuiliani campaign here, suggests that polls will be "all over the place'' in the final days. (Indeed, 27 percent of those surveyed say they might change their minds.I Giuliani can only hope so, if he hopes to head out of Florida with newfound strength for the series of big-state primaries coming on Feb. 5. In the meantime, the former mayor is parking is Florida campaign bus, apparently, and looking at the possibility of a several-city "fly-around'' in Florida near the eve of Tuesday's primary.
"Bye-bye Rudy,'' the St. Pete Times declared in an online headline that the ghost of Harry Truman might enjoy.
The survey also found that, in the uncontested Democratic primary here -- at the inistence of a DNC angered over Florida's early voting -- Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York remains strrong.
The survey of 800 voters by pollster Rob Schroth was conducted Jan. 20-22 for the St. Petersburg Times, Bay News 9 and The Miami Herald. Among Democrats surveyed, the possible margin of error is plus or minus 5.4 percent, among Republicans 5.1 percent.
• 
• 
• 
Comments
I guess he played "Texas Hold Em", and came up short. His strategy back-fired, but so did his lack of a message. Biden nailed it, "all he ever says is one noun, one verb and 9-11".
Posted by: dt | January 23, 2008 6:26 PM
I love watching all of these Wingnut candidates scramble to get the "fear" vote.
...meanwhile, the economy is tanking and their trumped up war on Iraq is costing us $$$ Billions $$$.
The GOPers ran out of new idea's about 20 years ago.
http://photobucket.com/mediadetail/?media=http%3A%2F%2Fi86.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fk88%2FDuke_S%2Fgop.jpg&searchTerm=gop&pageOffset=6
Posted by: John E | January 23, 2008 6:29 PM
Rudi's new campaign song;
Dogs
Pink Floyd (Waters, Gilmour)
You gotta be crazy, you gotta have a real need.
You gotta sleep on your toes, and when you're on the street,
You gotta be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed.
And then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight,
You gotta strike when the moment is right without thinking.
And after a while, you can work on points for style.
Like the club tie, and the firm handshake,
A certain look in the eye and an easy smile.
You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to,
So that when they turn their backs on you,
You'll get the chance to put the knife in.
You gotta keep one eye looking over your shoulder.
You know it's going to get harder, and harder, and harder as you
get older.
And in the end you'll pack up and fly down south,
Hide your head in the Florida sand,
Just another sad old man,
All alone and dying of cancer.
And when you loose control, you'll reap the harvest you have sown.
And as the fear grows, the bad blood slows and turns to stone.
And it's too late to lose the weight you used to need to throw
around.
So have a good drown, as you go down, all alone,
Dragged down by the stone.
Posted by: C.Morris | January 23, 2008 6:43 PM
After the New Hampshire and Michigaan polling fiascos, the dead-tree media types STILL write articles publicizing polls.
The media--"Stuck on Stupid."
Posted by: Bruce | January 23, 2008 7:13 PM
Bruce,
You seem to be stuck. Can a surgeon remove that gearshift?
Posted by: Kenny Bunkport | January 23, 2008 7:42 PM
Rudy 911 Giulinai has put all of his eggs in the Florida basket. Even if he wins, his 911 train has run out of track. It's interesting how the 911 catastrophe was able to take a couple of guys from zeros to heroes and like lottery winners, they quickly squander their undeserved gain and are both promptly placed back into their original habitat.
Posted by: andy42302 | January 23, 2008 8:25 PM
andy,
They are proving Deming's 'regression to mean' theory.....
Posted by: C.Morris | January 23, 2008 8:53 PM
Yeah, Analdice,
Life is much more interesting if we never venture a guess as to whether the Giants can beat the Pats, Rudy can live to fight another day, or Super Tuesday will even matter. Lets just eliminate all the speculation, all the discussion, all the "what ifs" and meet back here after November and see who the "last man/women standing" is. What a salty dog you are:
http://www.funlol.com/pictures/comb-over-dog.html
Posted by: dt | January 23, 2008 10:34 PM
It's funny, because boy george's "I've made you safer" propaganda has diminished the value of fighting US terrorism, so goyliani's "I'll make you safer" campaign becomes more insignificant every day. The republinuts are defeating themselves. I guess it is America's short attention sp...
Posted by: rncbs | January 23, 2008 10:52 PM
If McCain wins Florida the nomination is as good as his. The Swamp should report the results of last night's Louisiana caucus where McCain finished second behind "any prolife candidate" and his delegates overlap with a lot of the any prolife delegates so he essentially won the caucuses.
Posted by: Jeff | January 24, 2008 2:08 AM
It was a bad strategy devised by a team of people. Many of us lesser-paid amateurs could have told them from day one that pulling him out of the public eye for over a month would be a bad idea, but they surely wouldn't have listened.
Posted by: Tom | January 24, 2008 9:02 AM
After the New Hampshire and Michigaan polling fiascos, the dead-tree media types STILL write articles publicizing polls.
The media--"Stuck on Stupid."
Posted by: Bruce | January 23, 2008 7:13 PM
Bruce, stuck on redundant.
Rudy's Florida strategy has doomed his candidacy. Then again it was doomed from the start. I do think the process has narrowed the field to the two best republican candidates, assuming Huckabee doesn't come back from the dead. I'm glad nobody has been coronated this time around. Kinda makes these people show their mettle.
Posted by: Logic Prisoner | January 24, 2008 9:26 AM
Completely agree, logic prisoner. Who decides to ignore six early primaries and caucuses?
By ignoring Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan, South Carolina, Nevada and Louisiana Giuliani effectively told the electorate "I only care about the big states."
Even if he wins Florida, which it doesn't look like he will, how is a Super Tuesday voter to feel after seeing that display. Whoever came up with this "strategy" needs to be fired. He's now polling behind in his home state of New York. That's karma
Posted by: Jeff | January 24, 2008 11:24 AM