Speaking anecdotally, I can say that during the last 48 hours the Giuliani campaign’s attacks on McCain have been on par with, if not more intense, than Romney’s. Yet one lesson of the GOP primary campaign so far is that attacking one’s opponent seldom works. And what will happen if Fred Thompson decides not to compete in Florida? Will his voters go to Giuliani, Romney, or McCain? I suspect that the reason McCain has not been able to win the conservative Republican vote outright, instead basically splitting it with whomever his major opponent was in New Hampshire or South Carolina, is that the multicandidate field splits the conservative Republican vote four different ways. There’s the sense that as the field narrows, more conservative Republicans will rally to the anti-McCain alternative. But that may be wishful thinking on the part of those who are dead-set against McCain’s nomination.
