One Time Frontrunner Reduced to a "Long Shot"

No, I'm not talking about Senator Clinton. We're talking about Mr. Firewall, Rudy Giuliani.

The Fix has officially declared Giuliani a "long shot" and this writer couldn't agree more.

It's interesting to look back at the history of the Florida Firewall. When the term first appeared, the Giuliani campaign dismissed it as a "tool to motivate volunteers," but it has quickly become the acknowledged cornerstone of his path to victory. It has also become, in very short order, what most people perceive to be a monumental blunder.

Giuliani has completely ceded the spotlight and let candidates like McCain and Huckabee generate all the buzz and all the momentum and has let himself become and afterthought, at best (an outright loser, at worst) in the early contests.

All of Florida's efforts to become particularly relevant in the nominating contest have failed, I believe, and Giuliani seems intent on proving my point. In a more drawn out contest, Florida might have mattered. But in this front loaded calendar, we will be too little, too late for Giuliani. By the time we come around, the media will have already dubbed this a two person contest between McCain and Huckabee, while Giuliani flounders in a morass of failed promise like a sad, cross-dressing (see photo) version Fred Thompson.