Romney steals some Giuliani thunder

It probably wasn't needed, but if Rudy Giuliani needed any extra motivation to enlist in John McCain's presidential campaign -- and thus probably hinder Mitt Romney's bid for the Republican nomination -- he got it Tuesday night.

Faced with his distant third-place finish in the Florida primary that he spent the last two months -- to the exclusion of virtually any other campaigning -- trying to win, Giuliani appeared before his supporters in the state to deliver what obviously was going to be his swan song. All the cable news networks were broadcasting it. And then Romney stepped on his message.

Giuliani was about two-thirds or so through his remarks, reaching the part where he would sum up what he had tried to accomplish in his White House quest, when Romney, the night's second-place finisher to McCain, began giving his concession speech to his backers. The cable stations cut to him -- Giuliani, after all, had collapsed as a viable candidate, while Romney clearly was still in the fight.

To some degree, Giuliani had only himself to blame. His wrap-up speech, much like his campaign over the last few weeks, had a wandering, undefined quality to it. Still, having the spotlight yanked from him before he was finished gave him one more cause for ill will toward Romney, the rival he sparred most frequently with back in those bygone days when he seemed a top contender in the GOP race.

-- Don Frederick

Comments

[Jed Merrill, ConservativeRepublicans.com]

Giuliani would better use his fame to back Romney, who has the most credible chance at reuniting the fabled Reagan coalition. Backing McCain would pull the GOP apart at the seams.

Romney leads McCain 36% to 21% among self-described Republican conservatives, according to Rasmussen.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/election_20082/2008_presidential_election/2008_republican_presidential_primary

I am curious whether Giuliani will act in the interest of his friend...or the Party. (And by extension the country.)

[Andrew Jacobson]

I appreciate the positive treatment of this matter by Don Frederick. I recall hearing the same thing described regarding another recent state, though the reporter insisted that it was a calculated move on the part of Romney.

What bothered me was that no speech by Romney was televised for New Hampshire, as Huckabee very clearly calculated the timing of his speech to pre-empt Romney, who actually came in ahead of Huckabee in that state, within a few seconds after Romney had begun to speak. And yet, no reporter ever mentioned or suspected that obvious ploy. As a result, Huckabee ended up garnering even more attention. In fact, little was said about Romney in any state in which he came in second, not to mention the incredibly close margin in each instance, while the candidate in third place enjoyed far more attention. Then, Romney's first-place finishes were completely ignored and discounted.

I am therefore pleased to see a change of tide in the coverage on both TV and in print.

Romney is not my personal favorite, but the unbiased coverage has been obvious enough to have bothered me from the beginning. I'm pleasantly surprised to see a change, which doesn't seem to be triggered by anything other than possibly the poor showings by Thompson and Giuliani who may have been the benefactors of the unspoken and possibly unconscious bias that was so prevalent.

[Bob Gibson]

Sad to see Rudy falter so badly. He really miss played his cards. But I guess the process works as it sreens out wanta bes.