Front Row: Giuliani’s losing strategy

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/01/front_row_giulianis_losing_str.html

by Paul West

The early results from the 2008 primaries and caucuses have been rolling in, and the verdict is clear: Rudy can't fail.

When he launched his presidential campaign in Iowa last spring, Rudolph Giuliani boasted that he would "win the caucus, and surprise everybody."

He didn't, of course. The biggest surprise of the Giuliani campaign has been how successful he has been in spinning his failures and continuing to be considered a serious contender, despite an unblemished record of futility that has him on pace to be the largest flop of 2008 and one of the biggest busts in presidential campaign history.

You could look it up, in the immortal words of the old professor, Casey Stengel, late of Rudy's beloved New York Yankees (except when he was pulling for Boston, as part of a transparent effort to court denizens of Red Sox nation in neighboring New Hampshire).

In Iowa, Rudy finished sixth, with less than four percent of the vote, despite visiting more than 30 Iowa cities and campaigning in the state, off and on, until the weekend before the vote.

The mayor explained his decision not to compete more seriously in the first voter test of 2008 as a strategic move.

nt

His strategy is lazy and a failure.