Bye-Bye, Rudy

It looked so brilliant, so foolproof. Who could have ever guessed that Rudy Giuliani's primary campaign strategy, loose really big, over and over, until you win even bigger wasn't an obvious winner. Rudy's always said that he was pinning his while campaign success on Florida. (At least, he's always said it since whenever the first time he said it was. This post at RealClearPolitics shows that his campaign was singing a different tune three short months ago.) Perhaps it depends on how you define success. If you really look at it, Rudy did indeed pull off his best showing tonight in Florida. A full 15 percent of the vote and a solid third place. That sure beats single digits and sixth place. But apparently 15 percent doesn't live up to Rudy's expectations, so he's taking his ball and going home. (Actually, he's tossing his ball to McCain, and then he's going home.) I have to admit that I laughed out loud at the Sound Politics headline: Rudy's on a Train to Nowhere. They've even got a nifty video to explain the reference.

So does this make McCain the frontrunner? Such as it is, I suppose so. But with Super Tuesday only a week away now, I'm not sure that the crown matters much. McCain's had money problems in the past, but everybody loves a winner, so I'm sure fundraising isn't a problem at the moment. But it must be remembered that Romney has no such money problems. He doesn't need to win to stay in the chase, he just needs a respectable showing. Until McCain can show that the Republican base is going to coalesce behind him, there's no reason in the world for Romney to continue dropping out. Now that McCain's looking more and more to be the odds-on favorite for the nomination, it'll be interesting to see what kind of backlash he inspires. The people who hate him are going to start getting desperate before too long.