kate

George W. Bush
President Bush delivers remarks on the global war on terror, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

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President Bush's 2009 budget will virtually freeze most domestic programs and seek nearly $200 billion in savings from federal health care programs, a senior administration official said Thursday.

The Bush budget also will likely exceed $3 trillion, this official said.

Bush on Monday will present his proposed budget for the new fiscal year to Congress, where it's unlikely to gain much traction in the midst of a presidential campaign.

The president will propose nearly $178 billion in savings from Medicare a number that's nearly triple what he proposed last year. Much of the savings would come from freezing reimbursement rates for most health care providers for three years. Another $17 billion would come from the Medicaid program, the state-federal partnership that provides health coverage to the poor. The cuts would come over five years.

The official, whose spoke on condition of anonymity because the budget has not yet been released, said the budget for domestic programs would look like last year's.

"It's a very small increase," he said. "Very small."

A second official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said that domestic discretionary spending would increase by less than 1 percent under Bush's proposal.

The budget is likely to have deficits of about $400 billion for this year and next.

Economists say the best measure of the deficit is to compare it against the size of the economy. By that standard, a $400 billion deficit represents almost 3 percent of the gross domestic product. By contrast, President Clinton was facing deficits in the 4 percent range when he felt compelled to tackle the issue in 1993.

One official made that clear that Medicare would continue to grow, but not as quickly as had been expected. "Medicare will grow at 5 percent. It just won't grow over 7 percent," said this official.

Savings also would come by charging wealthier people higher monthly premiums for Medicare's drug program.

He said that Medicare's rapid growth, especially as the baby boomers become eligible for the program, must be addressed. He said critics of the Bush administration's proposals should come up with their own plan.

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                        <span class="strong">George W. Bush</span><br/>                         <span class="dgray f-10">President Bush delivers remarks on the global war on terror, Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)</span>
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    <p><a href="http://www.politicalbase.com/people/george-w-bush/15308/">President Bush</a>'s 2009 budget will virtually freeze most domestic programs and seek nearly $200 billion in savings from federal health care programs, a senior administration official said Thursday.</p>

The Bush budget also will likely exceed $3 trillion, this official said.

Bush on Monday will present his proposed budget for the new fiscal year to Congress, where it's unlikely to gain much traction in the midst of a presidential campaign.

The president will propose nearly $178 billion in savings from Medicare a number that's nearly triple what he proposed last year. Much of the savings would come from freezing reimbursement rates for most health care providers for three years. Another $17 billion would come from the Medicaid program, the state-federal partnership that provides health coverage to the poor. The cuts would come over five years.

The official, whose spoke on condition of anonymity because the budget has not yet been released, said the budget for domestic programs would look like last year's.

"It's a very small increase," he said. "Very small."

A second official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said that domestic discretionary spending would increase by less than 1 percent under Bush's proposal.

The budget is likely to have deficits of about $400 billion for this year and next.

Economists say the best measure of the deficit is to compare it against the size of the economy. By that standard, a $400 billion deficit represents almost 3 percent of the gross domestic product. By contrast, President Clinton was facing deficits in the 4 percent range when he felt compelled to tackle the issue in 1993.

One official made that clear that Medicare would continue to grow, but not as quickly as had been expected. "Medicare will grow at 5 percent. It just won't grow over 7 percent," said this official.

Savings also would come by charging wealthier people higher monthly premiums for Medicare's drug program.

He said that Medicare's rapid growth, especially as the baby boomers become eligible for the program, must be addressed. He said critics of the Bush administration's proposals should come up with their own plan.

    <br class="clear-both"/>

I definitely vote for Huckabee. I did have the point made to me that at least he's open and upfront about his scariness, which, I admit, helps a little, but his ideas are just frightening if you ask me.

And McCain grabs another day of headlines. Romney needs to come up with something big if he wants to counter this momentum.

Arnold Schwarzenegger
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger takes a question during a news conference before the Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed Sen. John McCain in the Republican presidential race on Thursday, praising him as an "extraordinary leader" who can reach across the political aisle to get things done.

At a news conference, Schwarzenegger said McCain has the national security credentials to do the job, and is a "crusader against wasteful spending."

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani also attended the event, one day after he dropped out of the race and threw his support behind his longtime friend.

McCain is counting on both men Schwarzenegger in California and Giuliani in New York to help propel him to victory in the two biggest states holding primaries next week. Combined, they offer 271 delegates, more than a quarter of the 1,023 at stake in a Super Tuesday slew of primaries and caucuses.

Schwarzenegger delivered his endorsement after a tour of a solar-energy company. he said it's the kind of factory that helps protect the environment while helping the economy. "That's music to my ears," he said.

McCain pledged he would work to leave the planet in better shape than it currently is. He has been a supporter of efforts to deal with global warming.

"Green technologies is one of the key ways" to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, he added.

Schwarzenegger's endorsement of McCain is yet another setback for Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who saw Florida slip from his grasp Tuesday after McCain rolled up the support of that state's two top elected Republicans, Gov. Charlie Crist and Sen. Mel Martinez.

Giuliani's impact was being felt, as well, when several of his former supporters in New Jersey threw their support to McCain earlier in the day.

New Jersey has 52 delegates at stake in next week's primary, and like New York, gives them all to the winner of the popular vote.

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                        <span class="strong">Arnold Schwarzenegger</span><br/>                          <span class="dgray f-10">California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger takes a question during a news conference before the Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008.  (AP Photo/LM Otero)</span>
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    <p>California Gov. <a href="http://www.politicalbase.com/people/arnold-schwarzenegger/13465/">Arnold Schwarzenegger</a> endorsed Sen. <a href="http://www.politicalbase.com/people/john-mccain/3047/">John McCain</a> in the Republican presidential race on Thursday, praising him as an "extraordinary leader" who can reach across the political aisle to get things done.</p>

At a news conference, Schwarzenegger said McCain has the national security credentials to do the job, and is a "crusader against wasteful spending."

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani also attended the event, one day after he dropped out of the race and threw his support behind his longtime friend.

McCain is counting on both men Schwarzenegger in California and Giuliani in New York to help propel him to victory in the two biggest states holding primaries next week. Combined, they offer 271 delegates, more than a quarter of the 1,023 at stake in a Super Tuesday slew of primaries and caucuses.

Schwarzenegger delivered his endorsement after a tour of a solar-energy company. he said it's the kind of factory that helps protect the environment while helping the economy. "That's music to my ears," he said.

McCain pledged he would work to leave the planet in better shape than it currently is. He has been a supporter of efforts to deal with global warming.

"Green technologies is one of the key ways" to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil, he added.

Schwarzenegger's endorsement of McCain is yet another setback for Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who saw Florida slip from his grasp Tuesday after McCain rolled up the support of that state's two top elected Republicans, Gov. Charlie Crist and Sen. Mel Martinez.

Giuliani's impact was being felt, as well, when several of his former supporters in New Jersey threw their support to McCain earlier in the day.

New Jersey has 52 delegates at stake in next week's primary, and like New York, gives them all to the winner of the popular vote.

    <br class="clear-both"/>

Yet another impact of the Iraq war and another example of the lack of preparation. If the government and the military are going to ask these men and women to place themselves in harms way for our benefit they need to better prepare to assist them in the, I would imagine, expected negative mental impacts of the environment. It's not as if these issues are new.

As many as 121 Army soldiers committed suicide in 2007, a jump of some 20 percent over the year before, officials said Thursday.

The rise comes despite numerous efforts to improve the mental health of a force stressed by a longer-than-expected war in Iraq and the most deadly year yet in the now six-year-old conflict in Afghanistan.

Internal briefing papers prepared by the Army's psychiatry consultant early this month show there were 89 confirmed suicides last year and 32 deaths that are suspected suicides and still under investigation.

More than a quarter of those about 34 happened during deployments in Iraq, an increase from 27 in Iraq the previous year, according to the preliminary figures.

The report also shows an increase in the number of attempted suicides and self-injuries some 2,100 in 2007 compared to less than 1,500 the previous year and less than 500 in 2002.

The total of 121 suicides last year, if all are confirmed, would be more than double the 52 reported in 2001, before the Sept. 11 attacks prompted the Bush administration to launch its counter-terror war. The toll was 87 by 2005 and 102 in 2006.

Officials said the rate of suicides per 100,000 active duty soldiers has not yet been calculated for 2007. But in a half million-person active duty Army, the 2006 toll of 102 translated to a rate of 17.5 per 100,000, the highest since the Army started counting in 1980, officials said. The rate has fluctuated over those years, with the low being 9.1 per 100,000 in 2001.

That toll and rate for 2006 is a revision from figures released in August because a number of pending cases have since been concluded. Officials earlier had reported 99 soldiers killed themselves in 2006 and two cases were pending as opposed to the 102 now confirmed. It's common for investigations to take some time and for officials to study results at length before releasing them publicly.

Col. Elspeth Ritchie, the psychiatry consultant to the Army surgeon general, has said that officials found failed personal relationships, legal and financial problems and the stress of their jobs have been main factors in soldiers' suicides. Officials also have found that the number of days troops are deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan or nearby countries contributes to that stress.

With the Army stretched thin by years of fighting the two wars, the Pentagon last year extended normal tours of duty to 15 months from 12 and has sent some troops back to the wars several times. The Army has been hoping to reduce tour lengths this summer. But the prospect could depend heavily on what Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, recommends when he gives his assessment of security in Iraq and troop needs to Congress in April.

A succession of studies on mental health in the military have found a system that might have been adequate for peacetime has been overwhelmed by troops coming home from war. Some troop surveys in Iraq have shown that 20 percent of Army soldiers have signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress, which can cause flashbacks of traumatic combat experiences and other severe reactions. About 35 percent of soldiers are seeking some kind of mental health treatment a year after returning home under a program that screens returning troops for physical and mental health problems, officials have said.

Officials have worked to set up a number of new programs and strengthen old ones for providing mental health care to the force. The Army also has been working to stem the stigma associated with getting therapy for mental problems, after officials found that troops are avoiding counseling out of fear it could harm their careers.

On the Net:

Defense Department:

    <p>As many as 121 Army soldiers committed suicide in 2007, a jump of some 20 percent over the year before, officials said Thursday.</p>

The rise comes despite numerous efforts to improve the mental health of a force stressed by a longer-than-expected war in Iraq and the most deadly year yet in the now six-year-old conflict in Afghanistan.

Internal briefing papers prepared by the Army's psychiatry consultant early this month show there were 89 confirmed suicides last year and 32 deaths that are suspected suicides and still under investigation.

More than a quarter of those about 34 happened during deployments in Iraq, an increase from 27 in Iraq the previous year, according to the preliminary figures.

The report also shows an increase in the number of attempted suicides and self-injuries some 2,100 in 2007 compared to less than 1,500 the previous year and less than 500 in 2002.

The total of 121 suicides last year, if all are confirmed, would be more than double the 52 reported in 2001, before the Sept. 11 attacks prompted the Bush administration to launch its counter-terror war. The toll was 87 by 2005 and 102 in 2006.

Officials said the rate of suicides per 100,000 active duty soldiers has not yet been calculated for 2007. But in a half million-person active duty Army, the 2006 toll of 102 translated to a rate of 17.5 per 100,000, the highest since the Army started counting in 1980, officials said. The rate has fluctuated over those years, with the low being 9.1 per 100,000 in 2001.

That toll and rate for 2006 is a revision from figures released in August because a number of pending cases have since been concluded. Officials earlier had reported 99 soldiers killed themselves in 2006 and two cases were pending as opposed to the 102 now confirmed. It's common for investigations to take some time and for officials to study results at length before releasing them publicly.

Col. Elspeth Ritchie, the psychiatry consultant to the Army surgeon general, has said that officials found failed personal relationships, legal and financial problems and the stress of their jobs have been main factors in soldiers' suicides. Officials also have found that the number of days troops are deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan or nearby countries contributes to that stress.

With the Army stretched thin by years of fighting the two wars, the Pentagon last year extended normal tours of duty to 15 months from 12 and has sent some troops back to the wars several times. The Army has been hoping to reduce tour lengths this summer. But the prospect could depend heavily on what Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, recommends when he gives his assessment of security in Iraq and troop needs to Congress in April.

A succession of studies on mental health in the military have found a system that might have been adequate for peacetime has been overwhelmed by troops coming home from war. Some troop surveys in Iraq have shown that 20 percent of Army soldiers have signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress, which can cause flashbacks of traumatic combat experiences and other severe reactions. About 35 percent of soldiers are seeking some kind of mental health treatment a year after returning home under a program that screens returning troops for physical and mental health problems, officials have said.

Officials have worked to set up a number of new programs and strengthen old ones for providing mental health care to the force. The Army also has been working to stem the stigma associated with getting therapy for mental problems, after officials found that troops are avoiding counseling out of fear it could harm their careers.

On the Net:

Defense Department:

    <br class="clear-both"/>

Seriously. I realize they are trying to win but their petty attacks against each other are doing a lot of harm."

bethany says:

Seriously. I realize they are trying to win but their petty attacks against each other are doing a lot of harm."

Are they really doing a lot of harm? It seems to me that Democrats on a whole are pretty committed to remaining unified and electing a Democrat in November.

If you look at economic theory, one of the few instances where increased cost in not prohibitive is an addictive substance. Typically they use cigarettes to demonstrate this. I don't know if I am 100% for or against legalized drugs, but I do have to say, I don't know a single person who quit smoking because a pack had gone up to over $8/pack (at least in New York). Point is, I'm not sure taxing drugs will reduce drug use.

Great news for voters! I'm happy to see that voters rights are prioritized here.

Hillary Clinton
Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. urges people to caucus for her as she leaves Bertha Miranda's Mexican Restaurant in Reno, Nev. Saturday, Jan. 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

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Democrats with ties to Hillary Rodham Clinton failed in court Thursday to prevent casino workers from caucusing at special precincts in Nevada.

The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge James Mahan was presumed to be a boost for Clinton rival Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential caucuses Saturday because he has been endorsed by the union representing many of the shift workers who will be able to use the precincts on the Las Vegas strip.

"State Democrats have a First Amendment right to association, to assemble and to set their own rules," Mahan said.

Nevada's Democratic Party approved creation of the precincts to make it easier for housekeepers, waitresses and bellhops to caucus during the day near work rather than have to do so in their neighborhoods.

The state teachers union, which has ties to Clinton, brought the suit against the special precincts shortly after local 226 of the Culinary Workers Union endorsed Obama for the Democratic nomination. The union is the largest in Nevada, with 60,000 members. The Clinton campaign said it was not involved in the suit.

The suit contended party rules allowing the precincts gave too much power to the casino workers and violated federal equal protection guarantees.

But the judge said, "We aren't voting here, we're caucusing. That's something that parties decide."

He said it is "up to the national party and the state party to promulgate these rules and enforce them."

The Democratic National Committee ratified the state party's rules in August.

Opinion polls show Clinton, Obama and John Edwards in a statistical dead heat in the Nevada race. Each has made a vigorous bid for union support.

Opponents of the strip precincts said they could be more valuable in the delegate count than some sparsely populated counties, giving them too much clout. The Culinary Union said the suit was an attempt to disenfranchise its members. "Backers of Hillary Clinton are suing in court to take away our right to vote in the caucuses," a union flier said.

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                        <span class="strong">Hillary Clinton</span><br/>                            <span class="dgray f-10">Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. urges people to caucus for her as she leaves Bertha Miranda's Mexican Restaurant in Reno, Nev. Saturday, Jan. 12, 2008. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)</span>
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    <p>Democrats with ties to <a href="http://www.politicalbase.com/people/hillary-clinton/2297/">Hillary Rodham Clinton</a> failed in court Thursday to prevent casino workers from caucusing at special precincts in Nevada.</p>

The ruling by U.S. District Court Judge James Mahan was presumed to be a boost for Clinton rival Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential caucuses Saturday because he has been endorsed by the union representing many of the shift workers who will be able to use the precincts on the Las Vegas strip.

"State Democrats have a First Amendment right to association, to assemble and to set their own rules," Mahan said.

Nevada's Democratic Party approved creation of the precincts to make it easier for housekeepers, waitresses and bellhops to caucus during the day near work rather than have to do so in their neighborhoods.

The state teachers union, which has ties to Clinton, brought the suit against the special precincts shortly after local 226 of the Culinary Workers Union endorsed Obama for the Democratic nomination. The union is the largest in Nevada, with 60,000 members. The Clinton campaign said it was not involved in the suit.

The suit contended party rules allowing the precincts gave too much power to the casino workers and violated federal equal protection guarantees.

But the judge said, "We aren't voting here, we're caucusing. That's something that parties decide."

He said it is "up to the national party and the state party to promulgate these rules and enforce them."

The Democratic National Committee ratified the state party's rules in August.

Opinion polls show Clinton, Obama and John Edwards in a statistical dead heat in the Nevada race. Each has made a vigorous bid for union support.

Opponents of the strip precincts said they could be more valuable in the delegate count than some sparsely populated counties, giving them too much clout. The Culinary Union said the suit was an attempt to disenfranchise its members. "Backers of Hillary Clinton are suing in court to take away our right to vote in the caucuses," a union flier said.

    <br class="clear-both"/>

I'm sorry, can someone please explain to me why Congress is involved in baseball's steroid problem? It seems there might be a few more valuable places to spend their time and money.

The FBI has opened a preliminary investigation into whether baseball all-star Miguel Tejada lied to federal authorities when he denied taking steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs, The Associated Press has learned.

The inquiry, in response to a congressional request, amounts to an initial look at facts surrounding the case. It does not mean charges will be brought against the Houston Astros shortstop, who in 2002 was the American League's Most Valuable Player.

Investigators with the FBI's field office in Washington will handle the inquiry, according to an FBI official who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing. It is unclear how long the initial fact-finding will take.

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    <p>The FBI has opened a preliminary investigation into whether baseball all-star Miguel Tejada lied to federal authorities when he denied taking steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs, The Associated Press has learned.</p>

The inquiry, in response to a congressional request, amounts to an initial look at facts surrounding the case. It does not mean charges will be brought against the Houston Astros shortstop, who in 2002 was the American League's Most Valuable Player.

Investigators with the FBI's field office in Washington will handle the inquiry, according to an FBI official who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing. It is unclear how long the initial fact-finding will take.

    <br class="clear-both"/>

Even if Giuliani wins in Florida, is that enough to keep his campaign going? So far he's won only 1 delegate - not exactly on track to winning the nomination - and seems to be fading from the news. I can't picture how one state is going to make up for all the ground he has lost.

Rudy Giuliani
Republican presidential hopeful former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani talks to the media during a campaign stop in Kansas City, Mo. Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2007. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

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Republican Rudy Giuliani challenged political convention in shrugging off early primaries while staking his presidential candidacy on delegate-rich, later-voting states, a strategy that could be a colossal failure or a masterful calculation.

The former New York mayor is suffering from money woes and hasn't won a single primary. Other Republicans have been gobbling up delegates and national media attention, but Giuliani has won one key bet he placed long ago: Even after the first few contests, there would be no clear front-runner in the GOP field.

As his opponents spent time, money and energy battling in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and beyond, Giuliani shifted his resources to Florida, where he hopes its winner-take-all Jan. 29 primary will hand him 57 delegates and catapult him overnight to the top of the race for the nomination. He has no delegates so far.

Mitt Romney, who won the Michigan primary Tuesday, leads the delegate race with 42, followed by Mike Huckabee with 32 and John McCain with 13. It takes 1,191 to win the nomination.

Giuliani did not always pin his hopes on Florida. Initially, his campaign plan was multi-pronged, until he decided to abandon efforts in early voting Iowa and New Hampshire. His strategists originally thought he had a good shot at winning an early state or two, and at one point he gained ground in New Hampshire spending a chunk of cash there and was also a leader in South Carolina polls.

But the strategy changed along the way and now rests entirely on Florida. As Giuliani put it to reporters this week in Pompano Beach, Fla., there's no time to second-guess whether it was the right way to go.

"You can't go back into the past," he said. "This is the strategy we chose; this is the one we're going to use. We believe in it; we believe it's going to work."

The next day, a new poll showed his Florida lead had evaporated, and nationwide surveys show he has slipped from the front-runner place he once held. Top campaign staffers are going without paychecks this month to use every dollar they can in the state.

Giuliani will be campaigning nearly every day in Florida until Jan. 29, while his opponents still have to get through contests in South Carolina and Nevada.

In the final two weeks of the Florida campaign, a group of firefighters from the International Association of Fire Fighters is promising to dog him just about everywhere he goes. The group, dubbed "The Fire Brigade," says it will criticize Giuliani for what it considers to be "trumped up 9/11 credentials."

What could prove to be the demise of Giuliani's Florida strategy is momentum. The South Carolina winner and second-place finisher will come storming into Florida, forcing Giuliani to share a spotlight he has enjoyed all to himself.

And the 10 days between South Carolina and Nevada on Saturday and the Florida primary on Jan. 29 is the longest gap between votes since the nomination process began.

"It's like watching waves in a wave tank," said GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio. "Today we stand with three different guys winning in three different states heading into a blood bath in South Carolina, and one of them is going to pick up momentum out of it heading into Florida."

Florida's media market is so expensive that the candidates having blown much of their money on the first several primaries will be relying heavily on news coverage to get out their messages.

By camping out in Florida while they've been elsewhere, Giuliani has had the advantage of dominating headlines there. When early voting began on Monday, he was on a three-day bus tour through the state to rally supporters and remind crowds that they could vote for him before the other guys even arrived.

He revved up his audiences with red-state rhetoric about tax-and-spend Democrats, Sept. 11 references and jokes about Hillary Rodham Clinton. He took questions from voters at many stops but was rarely challenged by any questioners who seemed undecided. Many already appeared to be supporting him.

Nancy Baxter, a supporter who attended a packed rally at a seafood restaurant in Naples, Fla., said she was not concerned about Giuliani's losing his lead in polls.

"It's a wide-open race. I've never seen anything like it," she said. "He has just as much of a chance to turn it all around."

Some Giuliani supporters in Florida, however, are discouraged by the way the race is going, including Betty Nelson, a retired teacher from Bonita Springs, Fla., who was among the first to vote on Monday for Giuliani.

"I'm worried that he's not going to make it, but I hope he does because I believe in him," she said.

Giuliani's post-Florida plan counts on a victory propelling him to Feb. 5, when more than 20 states hold their contests. Giuliani has had wide leads in delegate-rich states voting that day, such as California, New York, New Jersey and Illinois, and he expected to capture smaller Connecticut and Delaware, too.

But his lead in those states also has disappeared, according to some polls.

The Giuliani Plan B holds that even where he doesn't win on Feb. 5, he could still come in second and win delegates. States in this category might include Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. Most states award delegates proportionately; only a few including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and Missouri award delegates on a winner-take-all basis.

So far, however, it is Romney who has managed second-place finishes where he didn't win, and Romney's money and organization leave him well-positioned to steal this second-place play from Giuliani's playbook.

Associated Press Writer Libby Quaid contributed to this story

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                        <span class="strong">Rudy Giuliani</span><br/>                          <span class="dgray f-10">Republican presidential hopeful former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani talks to the media during a campaign stop in Kansas City, Mo. Wednesday, Dec. 19, 2007. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)</span>
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                            <td class="alt"><a href="http://www.politicalbase.com/people/rudy-giuliani/15904/">Biography</a></td>
                            <td class="alt"><a href="http://www.politicalbase.com/people/rudy-giuliani/15904/issues/">Issues</a></td>
                            <td class="alt"><a href="http://www.politicalbase.com/people/rudy-giuliani/15904/money/">Fund Raising</a></td>
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                        <tr>
                            <td class="alt"><a href="http://www.politicalbase.com/people/rudy-giuliani/15904/rivals/">Rivals</a></td>
                            <td class="alt"><a href="http://www.politicalbase.com/people/rudy-giuliani/15904/supporters/">Supporters</a></td>
                            <td class="alt"><a href="http://www.politicalbase.com/people/rudy-giuliani/15904/affiliations/">Affiliations</a></td>
                        </tr>
                        <tr>
                            <td class="alt"><a href="http://www.politicalbase.com/people/rudy-giuliani/15904/photos/">Photos</a></td>
                            <td class="alt"><a href="http://www.politicalbase.com/people/rudy-giuliani/15904/videos/">Videos</a></td>
                            <td class="alt"><a href="http://www.politicalbase.com/people/rudy-giuliani/15904/forums/">Forums</a></td>
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    <p>Republican <a href="http://www.politicalbase.com/people/rudy-giuliani/15904/">Rudy Giuliani</a> challenged political convention in shrugging off early primaries while staking his presidential candidacy on delegate-rich, later-voting states, a strategy that could be a colossal failure or a masterful calculation.</p>

The former New York mayor is suffering from money woes and hasn't won a single primary. Other Republicans have been gobbling up delegates and national media attention, but Giuliani has won one key bet he placed long ago: Even after the first few contests, there would be no clear front-runner in the GOP field.

As his opponents spent time, money and energy battling in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and beyond, Giuliani shifted his resources to Florida, where he hopes its winner-take-all Jan. 29 primary will hand him 57 delegates and catapult him overnight to the top of the race for the nomination. He has no delegates so far.

Mitt Romney, who won the Michigan primary Tuesday, leads the delegate race with 42, followed by Mike Huckabee with 32 and John McCain with 13. It takes 1,191 to win the nomination.

Giuliani did not always pin his hopes on Florida. Initially, his campaign plan was multi-pronged, until he decided to abandon efforts in early voting Iowa and New Hampshire. His strategists originally thought he had a good shot at winning an early state or two, and at one point he gained ground in New Hampshire spending a chunk of cash there and was also a leader in South Carolina polls.

But the strategy changed along the way and now rests entirely on Florida. As Giuliani put it to reporters this week in Pompano Beach, Fla., there's no time to second-guess whether it was the right way to go.

"You can't go back into the past," he said. "This is the strategy we chose; this is the one we're going to use. We believe in it; we believe it's going to work."

The next day, a new poll showed his Florida lead had evaporated, and nationwide surveys show he has slipped from the front-runner place he once held. Top campaign staffers are going without paychecks this month to use every dollar they can in the state.

Giuliani will be campaigning nearly every day in Florida until Jan. 29, while his opponents still have to get through contests in South Carolina and Nevada.

In the final two weeks of the Florida campaign, a group of firefighters from the International Association of Fire Fighters is promising to dog him just about everywhere he goes. The group, dubbed "The Fire Brigade," says it will criticize Giuliani for what it considers to be "trumped up 9/11 credentials."

What could prove to be the demise of Giuliani's Florida strategy is momentum. The South Carolina winner and second-place finisher will come storming into Florida, forcing Giuliani to share a spotlight he has enjoyed all to himself.

And the 10 days between South Carolina and Nevada on Saturday and the Florida primary on Jan. 29 is the longest gap between votes since the nomination process began.

"It's like watching waves in a wave tank," said GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio. "Today we stand with three different guys winning in three different states heading into a blood bath in South Carolina, and one of them is going to pick up momentum out of it heading into Florida."

Florida's media market is so expensive that the candidates having blown much of their money on the first several primaries will be relying heavily on news coverage to get out their messages.

By camping out in Florida while they've been elsewhere, Giuliani has had the advantage of dominating headlines there. When early voting began on Monday, he was on a three-day bus tour through the state to rally supporters and remind crowds that they could vote for him before the other guys even arrived.

He revved up his audiences with red-state rhetoric about tax-and-spend Democrats, Sept. 11 references and jokes about Hillary Rodham Clinton. He took questions from voters at many stops but was rarely challenged by any questioners who seemed undecided. Many already appeared to be supporting him.

Nancy Baxter, a supporter who attended a packed rally at a seafood restaurant in Naples, Fla., said she was not concerned about Giuliani's losing his lead in polls.

"It's a wide-open race. I've never seen anything like it," she said. "He has just as much of a chance to turn it all around."

Some Giuliani supporters in Florida, however, are discouraged by the way the race is going, including Betty Nelson, a retired teacher from Bonita Springs, Fla., who was among the first to vote on Monday for Giuliani.

"I'm worried that he's not going to make it, but I hope he does because I believe in him," she said.

Giuliani's post-Florida plan counts on a victory propelling him to Feb. 5, when more than 20 states hold their contests. Giuliani has had wide leads in delegate-rich states voting that day, such as California, New York, New Jersey and Illinois, and he expected to capture smaller Connecticut and Delaware, too.

But his lead in those states also has disappeared, according to some polls.

The Giuliani Plan B holds that even where he doesn't win on Feb. 5, he could still come in second and win delegates. States in this category might include Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. Most states award delegates proportionately; only a few including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware and Missouri award delegates on a winner-take-all basis.

So far, however, it is Romney who has managed second-place finishes where he didn't win, and Romney's money and organization leave him well-positioned to steal this second-place play from Giuliani's playbook.

Associated Press Writer Libby Quaid contributed to this story

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Full disclosure: I am a Democrat (big D), but what truly frightened me about Huckabee's recent statement that we need to "amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view" has to do with the fact that I am first and foremost a democrat (little d). How could this possibly be in line with democracy, with the separation of church and state that is supposed to be a fundamental part of our democracy? Check out the video here.

Full disclosure: I am a Democrat (big D), but what truly frightened me about Huckabee's recent statement that we need to "amend the Constitution so it's in God's standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view" has to do with the fact that I am first and foremost a democrat (little d). How could this possibly be in line with democracy, with the separation of church and state that is supposed to be a fundamental part of our democracy? Check out the video here.

I agree with you to an extent Bold Strike in the sense that drugs are harmful, but if drug legalization had been deemed to have wholly negative effects on society, why have they been legalized in some places? I fully admit to not having enough knowledge about where and when drugs have been legalized, but if someone and some country thought legalization was the solution, I think greater research on the impacts of this legalization like Bethany suggested would be merited.

wow, i can't believe he said this. not that i can't believe he himself believes it, but certainly seems like he feel a little off message there.