Lets’s first start out by saying the Rudy guys have converted plenty of skeptics in regard to his seriousness, the competency and national ring savvy of his staff, and his overall credibility.
His emerging message, that “more freedom” must be the ultimate guide to help solve a plethora of domestic policy ills, is right out of an old Arthur Finkelstein playbook. It’s going to be effective if he can develop it.
But just as the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) convenes in DC today — a great opportunity for Rudy to develop this message – the Politico’s Ben Smith drops this little bomblet of perfectly bundled research that nails America’s Mayor on several fronts, just as he’s started to seriously pitch his conservative bonafides out on the hustings.
The odds are that the McCain guys provided Politico this salient oppo hit – and more power to them; McCain’s been taking hits for weeks, primarily because he’s getting pulled down into the Iraq quagmire morass.
McCain, the “former” frontrunner has also seen some really bad press in the past week questioning the very viability of his candidacy, and that he’s lost his 2000 mojo for good.
Just as Rudy’s stock price is overvalued now, McCain’s stock price is slightly undervalued, and he is now in a cyclical rut. Mitt Romney’s stock value has also plummeted as of late, and he, too, is slightly undervalued at the moment.
But now that Rudy is the “frontrunner” he’s now the target – and McCain, especially, will need to take back some of the market share that has “gravitated” – an accurate characterization – to Giuliani.
No question: Rudy’s kicked some major ass of late, and has been quite impressive – but there are now a number of arms trying to pull him down into the meat grinder. Now we’ll finally see some real campaigning and genuine hostilities breaking out.