Don't Blame Rudy For "Groundgame" Failure... Yet

John McCain has been running for president for ten years, and Mitt Romney, by dint of his RGA posts, staff seedlings and the Commonwealth PAC, has had plenty of lead time. Both have very strong "ground games" in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

There are two major reasons we think Giuliani is having some trouble "catching up." One is that it takes time to build a solid field organization. Giuliani's had about six months. Many of the best activists had singed up with other candidates by the time Giuliani decided to run. Not really his "fault." We like to put "unfair" "words" in "quotation marks."

The other is that the campaign's emphasis on Feb. 5 states has hurt their ability to recruit talent in some of the earlier states.

We've said it before -- Giuliani's campaign does not believe that they can do well on Feb. 5 without winning Florida on Jan. 29, and they don't believe they can win Florida without exceeding expectations in the early states. That's a complex message, though, and one that places more weight on the latest contest relative to the early ones.

The Giuliani campaign is living with both these realities. BTW: what's a reasonable way to assess Fred Thompson's performance in the Ames straw poll? [MARC AMBINDER]