Opinion: Why is the Giuliani camp smiling?

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In Iowa, 3% of the vote. An improvement in New Hampshire, 9%. But back to 3% in Michigan. And another dismal, single-digit showing seems likely in South Carolina on Saturday.

That’s the line so far for Rudy Giuliani in the Republican presidential race. If he was a baseball player at spring training with his beloved New York Yankees, his stats would have him headed to the deep, deep minor leagues. Yet Giuliani and his aides were actually pleased with what happened in the Michigan primary on Tuesday.

Mitt Romney’s victory stalled the momentum John McCain was hoping to establish in the GOP race. And that keeps alive Giuliani’s unique strategy for snaring his party’s brass ring -- use a win in Florida on Jan. 29 to power to more victories -- and a clear path to the nomination -- on Feb. 5’s mega-Tuesday.

It seems a stretch to many, but not all. Guiliani actually got some good press Wednesday -- most obviously from one of his hometown publications, New York Magazine.

In a piece headlined ‘Is Rudy a Mad Genius After All,’ writer John Heilemann posits that Giuliani actually was the ‘real winner’ ...

coming out of Michigan (and with his 3% vote total).

Heilemann sums up that the Republican field ‘is exactly where Rudy’s people believed (hoped, prayed) it would be at this point: in utter disarray. If he wins in Florida ... he will be in the catbird seat. Indeed, you could even argue that, despite having won nothing thus far, Giuliani is now the GOP front-runner again, albeit by default. Bizarre? Incomprehensible? Perverse? No doubt. But what better words to describe the man himself and the party he seeks to lead?’

Words to ponder.

-- Don Frederick