Florida primary today

Today is the Florida primary, and I have this interesting MSNBC story to talk about:

WASHINGTON - Republican Rudy Giuliani's White House quest could be in deep trouble as he lags far behind the leaders in a Florida presidential primary he counted on winning, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll released Tuesday.

Hours before the start of Florida's voting, Arizona Sen. John McCain held a slim 4-point lead over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 35 percent to 31 percent, in what was essentially a two-man race, the poll found.

Giuliani, the former New York mayor, was battling former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee for a distant third place finish in Florida. Both registered 13 percent.

The margin of error in the poll was 3.3 percentage points.

Giuliani had staked his campaign on a strong Florida showing after pulling out of other early voting states, but he has drifted down in national and state polls for weeks as the drama of an intensely contested Republican race passed him by.

"The race has become a two-man race, and Giuliani is just not a factor," said pollster John Zogby.

This has become a two-man race with McCain and Romney in an almost statistical tie. They both have been bashing each other hard over the past week in Florida. I don't know who is going to win this race. However, who wins this Florida primary will be one step closer to becoming the GOP front-runner, and perhaps winning the Republican nomination.

As for Rudy Giuliani, he needs to win big in Florida in order to keep his campaign alive. But with Giuliani polling at around 13 percent, I'm not sure that is going to happen. So the next question is, how long will it be before Giuliani drops out? There are a couple of interesting stories in The New York Times story and ABC News about how subdued the Giuliani campaign has become. If Giuliani does plan to withdrawal, it will happen either Wednesday morning (If Giuliani comes in at a distant third, or fourth-place finish), or it could happen this weekend, when it will be a slow news day. I do not that Giuliani would want to continue campaigning into Super Duper Tuesday after investing so much time and money into Florida, and coming up very short. If Giuliani wins Florida, or comes in second place, his campaign will still be alive until Super Duper Tuesday. So this is still a very interesting race.