The most interesting political game to watch, is whether any of the Republican second or third tier candidates (clustered in mid or low single digits immediately beneath Romney's 10 or 12% in the polls) can gain enough traction by deposing one of the TWO, nearly equally tied at around 30% each in the polls, front runners: Giuliani & McCain, and thereby gain enough support for themselves to vault themselves out of the cellar.
I put Romney all alone in the 'second tier', and place nearly all the others in the 'third tier'... but in reality *both* second line and third line candidates need to raise TENS of MILLIONS, and advance out of the polling cellar before this summer is over (meaning they must dislodge one or both of the front runners) or they can pack their tents up, because it will be all over for them.
(Pretty much the same is going on over on the Dem side, three are ahead of the rest of the pack....)
And, this is largely an artifact of the front-loading of the primary schedules for both Parties. By the end of February '08, likely each Party will have a de facto candidate.
You post was INTERESTING for this angle though (had to start sometime though):
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"Grand Illusion," written by two journalists, says that in the late 1990s Giuliani went against the advice of police and emergency management experts and placed the city's emergency command center in the World Trade Center complex, which had been bombed in 1993 and was a presumed future target.
The command center had to be abandoned on September 11, 2001, after hijacked planes slammed into two skyscrapers next door. In the chaos that ensued Giuliani allowed fire and police commanders to be separated in violation of the city's own protocols, co-authors Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins say.
LACK OF COMMUNICATION
As a result, police and fire commanders could not coordinate search and rescue efforts. The National Institute of Standards and Technology concluded in a 2005 report that emergency responder lives likely were lost at the trade center because of the lack of communication.
"In the madness of that hour, of that 102 minutes, normally you would say that's an understandable failure," Barrett said. "The reason he is subject to criticism is because he has portrayed himself as a man of great decision and judgment that day."
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The big game seems to be: will Republicans swallow hard and then get behind one of the TWO front runners, one a confirmed Liberal and the other a long-time Maverick, as a way of making SURE that Clinton does not become President... or will they *not*, and roll the dice? |
