What Do the Florida Exit Polls Tell Us?

Florida Exit Polls - The Florida republican primary is underway and one thing is very clear, this is no longer Rudy Guiliani country.

Late into the day it appears like it will be a close race to the finish between former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Arizona Senator John McCain, and this is very bad news for Rudy Guiliani.

The former mayor of New York City and current presidential hopeful, Guiliani, was counting on Florida to be his launching pad to bigger and better things, but it does not look like Florida will hold up its end of the bargain.

Guiliani has spent most of his time and money in the Sunshine State and he has even easily conceded races in other parts of the country, telling the voters that Florida was his most important state. Well now the voting in Florida has begun and the republicans there are saying no to Rudy.

If the race does end up the way that it is shaping up in the exit polls, than Guiliani will be so far behind the other republican candidates, Huckabee, Romney and McCain, that he probably will never be able to catch up and this could be the last gasp for Guilani and his bid to be the next President of the United States.

There have also been reports recently that Rudy does not have the money to maintain his campaign, with senior staffers working for free to work out the budget crisis. If this is true than it might not have been as big a deal if Guiliani won the Florida primary, as he would have seen an infusion of cash to his campaign as he became on of the big time candidates in the race.

If he does not pull a miracle comeback and win Florida than he will not see this money and he may have to abandon his campaign altogether, which he could do, money or not, after losing the state which he said was the most important to his campaign.

Exit polls can tell us a lot of things, but the most glaring thing that Florida is telling us right now is that Rudy Guiliani will, in all likelihood, not be our next President, and the former GOP frontrunner might be out of the race sooner, rather than later.

While I don't expect Rudy to pull out of the Republican presidential race before Super Tuesday, which is next Tuesday, without a strong showing today he will not have the momentum to win much of anything next week and his campaign will probably end sometime shortly after February 5^th.