Florida is looking tight on the GOP side. Romney is now 100 percent on his economy message, which has promise. McCain, Inc. cut a new spot to cover McCain’s flank on the economy; a smart move and done just in time. McCain appears to have respectable TV buys in key I-4 markets: Tampa and Orlando. Romney is said to have more TV money at work over the entire state, and he’s been up for several weeks. Two new polls show McCain with a very slight lead. Interestingly, one media poll (Rob Schroth) shows Rudy in a distant third place, which if accurate on Tuesday will prove once and for all that Rudy’s victory-through-early-defeat strategy was as much a mistake for him as it was for John Connally in 1980. As the Florida race rolls into its final days, a few key questions to watch out for: 1.) With Thompson out and his own campaign on life-support, will Mike Huckabee dream sweet dreams of Air Force Two and morph into an attack surrogate for McCain who just grinds on Romney? First hints will be clear at the debate tonight. 2.) Will Romney go negative on TV and try a final weekend chop on McCain? 3.) Will McCain strike first with a negative TV spot of his own? (A few sharp sticks and negative spots are already tucked away deep in the trunk of the Straight Talk Express.) 4.) Will Obama try to score in FL, despite the no-campaign deal there, if he surges after a South Carolina win on Saturday? A win there, even in a no-delegate beauty contest, would be a big momentum builder into Super Tuesday. (While your Cardinal is a believer in the loving purity that illuminates all men, the media stories I see reporting a surge in FL absentee votes leads me to suspect that somebody on the Democratic side is busy ignoring the no-campaign rule, and is trying to heist the election with a large subterranean paid program to bank absentee votes. Sneaky, sneaky. …)
