The Giuliani campaign chartered a 727 on Monday for a day of barnstorming on the eve of Tuesday’s big primary, but none of the rallies at airports in Sanford, Clearwater, Fort Myers or Fort Lauderdale drew even a hundred supporters.
...And Mr. Giuliani — who as mayor once told a man who called in to his weekly radio show to protest the city’s ban on pet ferrets that “there is something deranged about you” — called Monday for an end to the “name-calling” in the race for president.
Monday was the first time in the campaign that Mr. Giuliani had allowed the traveling press to fly with him. But the crowds at some of the airport rallies were so small that it might have been more efficient to fly them to the candidate, instead of vice versa.
When the microphone went out at the first rally, outside the airport in Sanford, the crowd was intimate enough that the actor Jon Voight, who was introducing Mr. Giuliani, found that he did not need it. “I can talk to you guys!” he said, perfectly audibly, as he lowered the broken microphone.
Rudy is the Joe Lieberman of 2008 -- his name recognition led to strong early numbers in national polling, but he's just fundamentally unacceptable to the base. People have mocked his strategy of waiting until Florida to compete, but what was he supposed to do? He tried to campaign in New Hampshire earlier but it didn't work.
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