Now that Rudy Giuliani's candidacy has been derailed largely thanks to a media frenzy around charges that he used city budgeting tricks to cover up his extramarital Hamptons excursions, today's Times buries a short fact-check which casts doubt on the premise of the accusations. I'd like to see more detail than the quickie Times piece offers before rendering a verdict, but suffice to say that if Rudy is largely exonerated it ain't gonna make the front of the New York Post and dominate MSNBC for three days.
Meanwhile it's stunning when you think about it how much damage this story seems to have done to him. Perhaps it was just a vehicle for voters who knew little except for his 9/11 performance to learn that there's a big messy underside to the guy.
Relatedly, I think it's now safe to call Rudy's attempt in Florida last weekend at a campaign-narrative-shifting speech (like Mitt Romney's faith address) to have been a flop.
--Michael Crowley