A few musings. It will be interesting to see when the Rudy v. Romney spat reaches paid media. Both are vulnerable. And Romney’s campaign is fumbling a bit, both in strategy and message. Neither Rudy nor Romney can wait to the last minute and give the other an opportunity to launch a late attack. Rudy is fast on his feet and media adroit. Romney has resources and an effective pile of opposition research. (“Perhaps the mayor should have taken a minute to ask a few lawyers about Bernie Kerik …”) This is going to be a quite a fight. My guess: It’s better for Romney if the fight starts early and goes longer, since Mitt has more bullets and more rifles. And it’s better for Rudy if it goes late and gets nasty; he has the stronger instinct to go for the jugular. Meanwhile the other candidates hope Romney and Giuliani destroy each other. The Richardson ads are entertaining, but essentially a mistake. The powerful subtext is that Richardson is a minor buffoon. Ads like that can be quite effective in down ballot races, but undermine a would-be president. When choosing presidents, Americans don’t reach for Rodney Dangerfield. (It would help if Richardson didn’t have such a gift for being sloppy and unprepared on Sunday news shows.)
