Imagine that you're a political campaign with at least three times the notoriety of Ron Paul but one-sixth the number of party delegates. Imagine that you've been running on a platform of national security, but not much else, and not even a good platform of national security, at that.

Your name is Rudy Giuliani, and things aren't going well for you. After contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan, South Carolina, and Wyoming, you've picked up only one delegate. Ron Paul, crazy Texas libertarian and Internet darling, has six delegates. How could this happen? You were supposed to be the Republican golden boy. You were "America's Mayor." You were Time magazine's Person of the Year in 2001. Where did you go wrong?

For one, in several debates, Giuliani demonstrated that he knows next to nothing about formulating policy. In the very first Republican debate last year, Paul schooled Giuliani on "blowback" and why our Middle East policies may have created an environment for people like Osama Bin Laden to gain supporters. Giuliani would have none of it, insisting that Paul was blaming the United States for the September 11 attacks. At the end of the day, though, Giuliani's protestations about the evil terrorists revealed only that he has the same lack of understanding about the world that George W. Bush does.

And speaking of September 11, Giuliani speaks of September 11 a lot. His invocation of September 11 has entered the realm of the farcical, and prompted former presidential candidate Joe Biden to remark of Giuliani, "There's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, and a verb and 9/11." He has no clear policy positions, and his only credentials -- getting New York out of September 11 -- are based on doing exactly what anyone else in his place would have done. Doing the obvious does not make Giuliani an expert on national security. And continuing to invoke September 11, even in situations where it doesn't seem appropriate or necessary, only serves to strengthen the notion that he stands on the pedestal of September 11 because he has no other credentials.

Giuliani also managed to alienate the religious core of the Republican party with his stances on abortion and gay marriage. He used to be just peachy with abortion and gay marriage, but Giuliani has definitively come out against them now that it's politically expedient to do so. Christian conservatives wouldn't have anything to do with a candidate who isn't explicitly in line with their beliefs. While Giuliani may have changed his mind, it won't help him secure the nomination.

And most dastardly, Giuliani bypassed South Carolina altogether. Conventional wisdom tells us that no Republican has secured the party nomination without carrying South Carolina. Giuliani, rather than get into that brawl, opted instead to put all of his eggs into Florida, where he's been campaigning heavily. It is surely this misguided notion that will end Giuliani's chances at getting the nomination. Florida's delegates have been cut in half by the Republican National Committee as punishment for having their primary earlier than the RNC allowed. Florida has 57 delegates to pass out among the Republican candidates, and even if Giuliani wins most of them, it's not enough to surpass Mitt Romney, the current Republican leader. Perhaps Giuliani hopes that a win in Florida will give him a morale boost -- both for himself, his supporters, and the media -- but he should realize that he's dropped off the national radar. His decision to focus on Florida to the exclusion of all else has meant that he has pulled the plug on his own campaign, and even if he does win Florida, that can't help him win the nomination. He's lost too much already.