Rudy Death Watch: Day 18

Comparisons to the Titanic aside, Rudy's last ditch effort in Florida seems to be relying heavily exclusively on New York ex-pats. Not that these voters are unimportant, but it seems ridiculous to me hang all hope on such a slim niche. In some ways this really encapsulates the "big idea" of Rudy's campaign in so far as he frequently seemed to be running for the President of New York and not America.

There's a lot wrong with Rudy's run, but the death nail was of his own doing:

The fascinating thing about Giluliani's collapse is that it is primarily attributable to a strategic error, the decision to avoid contests in early states. It's not as though another candidate caught fire and displaced Rudy; McCain's return from the dead was largely a result of a vacuum created in no small part by Giuliani's occlusion, and the candidate who really did come out of nowhere, Mike Huckabee, took votes from Rudy's rivals. And while Rudy did take some hits late last year over his tangled love life and its possible impact on NY taxpayers, much of that was old news, and it accompanied the fall in the polls more than it caused it. He's done pretty well in the debates, and in fundraising. But it hasn't mattered much.

I'm willing to buy this, but only if it comes with a side order of "Rudy's a crappy retail politician."