Opinion: Giuliani, weeks and points behind, starts N.H. TV ads

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Fourteen-thousand-five-hundred ads and $10.2 million behind Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani goes up with his first television ads of the GOP presidential campaign in New Hampshire today.

With his heroic 9/11 exposure, of course, the former New York mayor has benefited enormously nationally in name recognition over the former Massachusetts governor, who’s built poll leads in Iowa and New Hampshire anyway and a developing conservative personality in South Carolina. Giuliani, who has been buying radio ads and direct mail already, is counting on riding out an initial Romney surge in early states and coming on strong in later states like Florida.

The new 60-second ad, which will air for about six days at a cost of more than $300,000, shows Giuliani looking straight into the camera. ‘I’ve been tested in a way in which the American people can look to me,’ Giuliani says.

‘They’re not going to find perfection, but they’re going to find somebody who has dealt with crisis almost on a regular basis and has had results. And in many cases, exceptional results. Results people thought weren’t possible.’

A new CBS/New York Times poll yesterday shows Giuliani trailing Romney in New Hampshire 16-34.

-- Andrew Malcolm