Meanwhile, the Republicans focused on the Jan. 29 contest in Florida, where the race remains wide open despite Arizona Senator John McCain's victories in South Carolina and New Hampshire. A Florida win would give the victor a whopping 57 delegates to the party's national convention and a huge jolt of energy in the run-up to Feb. 5.
McCain on Monday courted the influential Cuban vote in Miami, stressing that he would not lift the US's decades-old Cuba embargo and noting that some US prisoners-of-war in Vietnam, though not him, were tortured by Castro's agents.
The veteran senator hopes his personal and professional links to Florida, as well as his military background, will help him break out of the pack in a state that is home to a large number of veterans and active duty service members.
Almost immediately after the Republicans' Jan. 19 South Carolina primary, Giuliani and Mitt Romney, a Mormon millionaire and former Massachusetts governor, wasted no time in criticizing McCain. Their swipes were couched in economic terms, in line with recession worries that are dominating the race.
Giuliani attacked McCain for siding with Democrats in voting against Bush's tax cuts in 2001 and 2003. Romney portrayed the Arizona senator as a consummate Washington insider. Only Mike Huckabee, the preacher-turned-politician, was gracious, congratulating McCain on a clean campaign.
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