Gusto to Embarrassment - the Fall of Giuliani

Rudy Giuliani knew on Monday, if not before that, his hopes of becoming US president were over. He stopped off at various airfields round Florida for rallies that had long been organized by his staff, but the turnout at each was embarrassing.

At Fort Lauderdale, there were only 100 and Giuliani, ignoring the tradition of eve-of-poll rousing speeches, gave a short speech and departed to kill time in a nearby hangar.

Delivering the speech, he sounded down, all the gusto and exuberance with which he launched his campaign in 2006 gone.

Responding on Tuesday to questions about whether he would remain in the race, he said: "Wednesday morning, we'll make a decision." The next scheduled event is a Republican televised debate in California on Wednesday night.

Giuliani staked everything on Florida. Ignoring the conventional campaigning schedule that begins with Iowa and continues through New Hampshire and South Carolina, he opted for a "big states" strategy.

The former New York mayor anticipated taking Florida, helped by the large number of former residents of that city who retired to the state, and then go on to win New York, New Jersey and California.

But by the time his rivals arrived in Florida, they had built up too much momentum. He had banked on having a near-full war chest at a time when theirs would have been depleted, but their wins elsewhere brought in fresh funding and it was Giuliani who ended up struggling to compete financially, spending less than Mitt Romney and John McCain on advertising in the final week.

There was more to it than just a flawed strategy. He had spent 60 days campaigning in the state but Republican voters in Florida looked at him and decided they did not like what they saw.

It is a long fall for Giuliani. He enjoyed a clear lead over his rivals for much of last year, often by a margin of two to one.

He hoped the reputation he established in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, rallying the public in way that contrasted with the lack of leadership in the White House, would see him through.

He spoke repeatedly about 9/11 and claimed he was best placed to deal with terrorism and best placed to take on Hillary Clinton. But this was outweighed for socially conservative Republicans by what they saw as his soft positions on abortion, gay rights and gun laws.