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GROWING HOSTILITY TO GIULIANI IN IOWA? Polk County G.O.P. Chair and blogger Ted Sporer has a sharp run-down on the winners and losers of Saturday's straw poll in Ames over on his site, The Real Sporer. Most intriguing is his report of growing hostility to former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani on the part of potential caucus-goers in Ames:
By his absence, Rudy Giuliani was the biggest loser. As I have said in the press, McCain's absence was an operational assumption because of his history of disregard for Iowa's brand of retail politics, but Rudy had much to gain by participation. Rudy wants to lead the whole party, and must do so if he is the nominee. For better or worse, the national media has treated Rudy's non-appearance in the Straw Poll as unwillingness to even compete for the mainstream social conservatives, much less promote any part of their ideology. Human nature dictates that those disregarded find the development of future enthusiasm for those who have disregarded rather difficult.The last last diagnosis Sporer offered me -- that John McCain had burned too many bridges to play in Iowa -- preceded by less than a week the collapse of McCain's campaign in the state. Giuliani is in much better shape, and may still be able to turn things around, but he'll have to act decisively, and soon, in order to do so.Almost everyone present today, and every voter is also probably a leadership figure in their caucus, found Rudy's absence to be quite offensive, in an unusually personal way. The level of hostility toward Rudy was very surprising; he was clearly no one's second choice today. Rudy needs to campaign somewhere other than high dollar special invite events in Iowa and the need is becoming more acute if he is seriously competing here. We should probably know the answer to that question in the next couple of weeks.
--Garance Franke-Ruta
