The New York Times-20080126-Giuliani Does It His Way in New York-s Balmier Precincts- -Editorial-
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Giuliani Does It His Way in New York's Balmier Precincts; [Editorial]
Boca Raton, Fla.
The conventional wisdom is that Rudolph Giuliani has made a very big mistake in his campaign for president by spending most of his time in Florida. This often comes from people who are irritated about campaigning earlier this month in New Hampshire.
Yes, the former mayor of New York has barely registered in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada and Michigan -- while spending time where the average temperature is about 70 degrees.
And he doesn't even have a tan, or really talk about Florida that much. But that's the whole idea. Mr. Giuliani has roamed this very diverse state trying to persuade people who have deserted New York that he's what they miss.
One of the strong contenders for the Republican nomination, Mitt Romney, oozes with enthusiasm for the sun, the joy of Florida. The former mayor goes for New Yorkers' souls. He tells them that they must never, ever forget to worry.
Terrorism is right outside the door. The mayor is the man to fight it. Osama bin Laden is at large. The guy who tamed New York will find him. Hurricanes? Hizzoner can get the insurance man to pay up. If he could do this up there in the big city, he could certainly do it a few hundred miles south in puny old Washington.
His audiences break away from their ease to witness his dark humor, the muscular, tough-guy image. I love him, cooed one emigre from Long Island.
Charlie Connolly, 72, a former New York police captain who retired to Naples, wore his N.Y.P.D. hat to show support at a large rally there. A leader has to be tough, he explained. That's him.
David Stephens, a 25-year-old librarian from Fort Lauderdale, wore his Yankees hat to show his support for the mayor -- or maybe really for the Yankees. I'm voting for him because he's a Yankees fan, he says. Also, his parents are former New Yorkers.
The refugees from the city who refuse to wear Rudy stickers are a little harder to find. Some, of course, are Democrats, the Bickersons, as one elderly Republican labeled them. The Democratic Party has punished Florida for moving its primary up to Tuesday, and even if a million Democrats vote, they will just be taking part in a humongous straw poll. At this point, none of their delegates will count at the summer convention.
The Democratic Party feud is one (of several) that should have been settled long ago, but Mr. Giuliani and the other Republicans are savoring their Florida stage cleared of rivals from the other party. The G.O.P. debate on Thursday night, a sleepy love fest, still enjoyed the full media spotlight.
Mr. Giuliani, however, was not the centerpiece of that debate. The polls have been wrong a few times this year, but they still matter. According to them, he is jockeying for a dismal third place in field of five.
As a result, the mayor who once planned to surf the Florida vote straight into the Oval Office seems uncharacteristically unsteady. In a state full of Republican retirees, his 9/11 pitch has been losing ground to Mr. Romney's 401(k) pitch. At a Romney rally on Thursday in Boca Raton, Debra Targett, a financial planner from Boynton Beach, explained that she likes her candidate's business sense. I researched him like a stock, she said. He's a four or five star.
If Mayor Giuliani somehow wins in Florida, he can bounce home for the New York primary a week later. If he loses, it's hard to feel too sorry for anybody who spent his January in Florida.
