A Good Day for John McCain...

...and a bad, bad, terrible day for Rudy Giuliani.

First, The Tampa Bay Tribune has endorsed John McCain for the Republican nomination. In their words:

No matter the distractions of this election season, national security is the paramount issue facing our country and McCain has the best foreign-policy resume, bar none.

McCain is a decorated war veteran and sits on the Senate committees that oversee foreign affairs and the armed services. He has a deep knowledge about the threats we face. He knows the players. He could hit the ground running.

McCain is a known quantity, unlike some of the celebrity candidates. While we haven't always agreed with him - the campaign-finance reform he passed with Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold was flawed on many levels -we respect his backbone, his honesty and his unwavering patriotism.

McCain showed uncommon political courage last summer by backing President Bush's decision to increase troop strength in Baghdad. Actually, the senator recommended this strategy after famously comparing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's bare-bones strategy to the game of whack-a-mole. "I would much rather lose a campaign than lose a war," he said. How do you not respect that?

I agree with the Tribune's assessment. Now is the time for John McCain to lead America. This endorsement is bad news for Rudy Giuliani, who has campaigned hard on security issues. Many agree, including myself, that it is John is who is better prepared to deal with those issues.

Compounding this is a new national poll that indicates that John McCain is the clear national leader right now among the Republican Party. While not a great indicator for the upcoming Michigan and South Carolina primaries, it does provide some insight into Super Tuesday on February 5th.

To make matters worse for Rudy, a new SurveyUSA poll shows that John McCain is now leading in Florida. Florida has always been Rudy's "firewall" state. He has poured most of his resources into the state, and a loss there would not only deny him the momentum he hoped to have for Super Tuesday, it would likely shatter much of his support nationwide. He has already shown major erosion in support, this would be the final nail in the coffin of his campaign.