Spin Cycle

No, the vote is not until Tuesday, but the latest polls suggest that -- as the veterans' wisdom would have it -- Rudy Giuliani might really have been delusional after all when he decided he will become president of the United States by posing first as Florida's mayor, employing the sentiments stirred by Castro, terrorism, tax cuts and hurricanes.

Here's a resonant report of the former mayor's campaign life conveyed by Wall Street Journal reporter Monica Langley over the weekend:

"'He strikes me as weird,' said Donald Croll, a retired engineer who attended a Giuliani rally in Sun City. He frowned at the memory of Mr. Giuliani appearing in drag at a New York event and divorcing his second wife while having an affair with the woman who became his third. Said Mr. Croll: "I've had two wives, but my first one died of cancer."

Also from the piece: "Rather than a full cadre of political operatives, Mr. Giuliani has brought along his buddies, some of them also his business partners, such as boyhood friend Peter Powers, head of his consulting firm, Giuliani Partners LLC. His campaign bus is a macho club on wheels with sports on the TV screens and a supply of cigars. Instead of going for the baby-kissing "photo op," Mr. Giuliani recently rushed past one little boy, who bawled. Only after the boy's grandmother knocked on the bus's door pleading did Mr. Giuliani emerge and sign a brochure. ''Thank you, kid,' he said."

Dan Janison