WASHINGTON – John McCain‘s biggest victory last night wasn’t winning Florida or proving that he can attract conservatives in a Republican primary closed to independent voters.
Nor was McCain’s biggest victory the news that Rudy Giuliani will endorse the Arizona senator today.
His biggest victory last night was trouncing Giuliani so badly – by 20 points or so – that the political artist known as “America’s Mayor” had no choice but to surrender any hope of becoming the next president.
Florida, New York’s sixth borough, was supposed to be his “firewall,” but it turned out to be not such a retardant.
In fact, it was downright flammable, and Giuliani’s campaign has officially burned to a crisp.
Not that Giuliani was much of a threat recently.
For a week now, polls have shown him losing to McCain in New Jersey and even New York.
Giuliani’s humiliating demise is such a huge victory for McCain because the two hardened warriors have all along been scrapping for the same voters.
Those voters are the non-ideological Republicans and conservative-leaning independents who want a robust military, believe in fighting a vigorous war on terror, and appreciate a politician who is a “give ’em hell” straight-shooter.
They more or less had that in both McCain and Giuliani.
As the line reflecting Giuliani’s support has nose-dived in recent weeks, the line representing McCain’s support has skyrocketed.
That’s because as Giuliani’s supporters made their exodus, they had only one place to go: John McCain.
And there’s reason to believe that as the last of Giuliani’s support evaporates, it will migrate to McCain.
One way of understanding this is looking at Florida if Giuliani had not been in the race. Had all Giuliani’s supporters gone to McCain, Mac would have beaten Romney by 20 points instead of 5.
That’s not a bad wind to have at your back going into Super Tuesday, when you’re ahead in all the big states.
churt@nypost.com