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Posted: January 11, 2008 11:27 AM
Florida Means Go Time for Giuliani
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Forget Iowa. New Hampshire? Old news. Florida is where the action is, or at least to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and now’s the time to kick the campaign up a notch.

After barely making dents in the first three contests and tough battles ahead in Michigan and South Carolina, the former mayor is counting on a victory in the Sunshine State’s Jan. 29 primary to carry him to a sweep on Feb 5.

“By February 5th, it’s going to be clear that we’re the nominee of the party,” Giuliani said to a group of supporters on the eve of New Hampshire’s primary.

Giuliani has barely made it into the election spotlight. But his campaign is trying to remind reporters and potential supporters that he’s still in the race — the one they’ve decided begins in Florida. His campaign posted an interview on YouTube with a quote from Giuliani saying he’s confident he will win Florida and that “the people of Florida will make sure their vote counts.”

Technically, however, the Republican National Committee stripped Florida of half its 114 delegates for violating party rules by moving its primary earlier in the calendar.

Despite that, Giuliani was in Florida this week and has held 48 events there since January 2007, according to the Washington Post.

In an ad released on Wednesday, titled Super Bowl a narrator explains why nothing matters before Florida: “The media loves process. Talking heads love chatter. But Florida has a chance to turn down the noise. And show the world that leadership is what really matters.” Then the screen fades into an image of Giuliani speaking.

He followed with another ad on Thursday — this one to air in Florida and nationwide on Fox News — called First Day. “On his first day in office, Rudy Giuliani will send Congress the largest tax cut in American history,” the narrator reads.

The tax ad follows his release Wednesday of a “comprehensive tax cutting plan” that would make President Bush tax cuts permanent, eliminate the estate tax and give taxpayers the option of choosing a simplified tax form with three brackets, a plan his campaign is calling the “Fair And Simple Tax” or FAST. His plan also cuts the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 25 percent and eliminates the so-called “death tax.”

“Really what it’s ultimately all about, it’s about making this country a country in which we have prosperity for everyone, where people can dream their biggest dreams, where we reward success, where we don’t penalize success, and where we continue to be the leader of the world as a entrepreneurial country,” Giuliani said.

Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist praised the plan: “This tax cut — the largest in history — would represent a monumental leap forward for the American taxpayer and the U.S. economy.”

Recent polls show the economy as a mounting concern among voters.