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The NYT warns us not to count America's Mayor(TM), Rudy9/Giuliani11 out:
Mr. Romney’s victory here means three different Republican candidates have won each of the first three major contests. The race moves to South Carolina and Nevada this weekend with no clear front-runner and two credible candidates, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, and former Senator Fred D. Thompson of Tennessee, yet to seriously contest a state.I can't quibble with this claim about Thompson -- indeed, he has yet to provide credible evidence that he isn't being played on the campaign trail by a stuffed puppet. But the idea that Giuliani didn't "seriously contest" New Hampshire is just transparently false. He had more events there than anyone except Romney and spent more money than anyone but Romney and McCain. If that's not contesting a state, what is? Rudy! is just unusual because his active campaigning seems inversely correlated with his popularity. --Scott Lemieux
