Despite the outcome in Florida, Republicans across the nation should spend the next week thinking long and hard about the demoralizing prospect of a McCain nomination.

There has been a fair amount of discussion of flip-flopping in this race. Well, McCain has changed a few of his positions too. He changed away from conservatism. In the 1980s and early 1990s, he was a solidly credentialed member of the Reagan-Goldwater coalition who was right in line with the people of Arizona. In the late 1990s, when he saw that he could get better press for his dark horse Presidential aspirations as a “maverick,” he changed. McCain could fairly point out that he stood on “principle.” But it is equally fair to point out that those principles aren’t ours.

Faced with deficits to make up on abortion and past support for gay rights, Giuliani pursued a strategy that systematically dismantled everything that once made his candidacy appealing to his core supporters. The man who was once supposed to extend the GOP's reach outside of the South -- in states like New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, California -- instead played a southern strategy.

The best thing Giuliani can do now is to bow out gracefully should he come up with anything less than a win in Florida. He had his chance and wasted it: The least he can do now is stop wasting our time.

The fact remains that, throughout the debate about Iraq, John McCain brought to the table an independence of judgment that Mitt Romney (and just about everyone else) did not. McCain refused to defer to the Defense Department when things were going badly in Iraq. Rather he kept advocating another approach -- essentially the one that’s working now. So McCain has the better record, but that doesn't justify trying to make Romney’s record sound worse than it is.

Will America's taxpayers underwrite hurricane insurance for Florida homeowners?

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, desperately needing a win in the Sunshine State, has made support for the Florida bailout a centerpiece of his recent speeches. His new Web video proudly announces that among the GOP candidates, "only one has a plan to lower rates and fix the insurance mess. Tested in crisis. Ready to lead. Rudy Giuliani." So the hero of 9/11 will apply that experience to making sure South Beach homeowners can buy insurance at below-market rates. America's Mayor is now vying to become America's Insurance Commissioner.

And Giuliani isn't the only one.

Rudy is here because Florida is more important to him than Nevada or South Carolina. The rest of the boys and their campaign staffs and their telemarketers will be here shortly after the votes are counted in South Carolina. I'm eager too see how it turns out. But I'm not eager to spend the next 10 days answering my telephone in this wise: "Hello. This is not a recording. This is Larry Thornberry actually speaking. If this is a sales or a political call, hang up now. If this is a friend, a relative, or a legitimate business call, please speak..."