Here's a Mike Allen report on the GOP race that's worth reading. Allen writes:
Romney aides see they are facing a fight and are pushing back hard. Kevin Madden, Romney's national press secretary, said: 'Other campaigns will flail about and try and attempt to launch angry attacks on us, and we're prepared for that.' 'Angry' is aimed at one of Giuliani's big vulnerabilities - his volatile temperament and the mixed view that New Yorkers had of him when he was mayor. The Romney campaign plans to push that idea - at first subtly and perhaps later overtly - in coming days.
As this Peter J. Boyer report from August makes clear, there were a lot of New Yorkers who had problems with Giuliani by the time hizzoner left office. As the Allen report suggests, the Romney campaign seems to recognize this and is planning an attack on the grounds that Giuliani is "angry." Here's the thing, though: Most of those New Yorkers who didn't like Giuliani in 2001 were liberals who, once the mayor saved their city from them, were able to focus on those aspects of Rudy's personality which they did not like. Those aspects of his personality, uncoincidentally, also allow him to achieve his desired results. In other words: If Romney focuses on Giuliani's "anger," he once again will be borrowing rhetoric from the Democrats in order to bash a fellow Republican. It's an audacious gambit. But is it necessarily the best strategy by which to win a Republican primary?