Rudy's on a roll

He finishes sixth in Michigan, but he's got 9/11 with him in Florida.

Published January 16, 2008 2:06PM (EST)

When Rudy Giuliani got a question about Sept. 11th the other day and spent most of his answer talking about something else, we thought maybe -- just maybe -- America's Mayor had decided that he no longer wanted to be mocked for being a 9/11 windup toy.

It seems that we were wrong.

Giuliani, who finished sixth in the Michigan primary, has spent most of the past few days campaigning in Florida, where he's urging Republicans to take advantage of the state's early voting law and cast their votes for him before the other candidates "even get here to campaign."

Along the way, he has kept 9/11 close at hand.

During a town hall meeting in Bradenton, Fla., Saturday, Giuliani invoked his experiences during 9/11 as a way to explain his support for a national insurance backup fund. "Maybe I feel more strongly about this because of what I went through as mayor," he said. "I don't even know how to describe Sept. 11. I don't know if 'catastrophe' is even the right word."

On Sunday, Giuliani paraded through the streets of Miami's Little Havana on top of a flag-draped firetruck. Giuliani invoked 9/11 during the first five minutes of a talk at a retirement community in Fort Myers Monday. And during a speech in New Smyrna Beach Tuesday, Giuliani noticed that a former New York City police chief was in the crowd and said that the man looked just like he did "on Sept. 11."


By Tim Grieve

Tim Grieve is a senior writer and the author of Salon's War Room blog.

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