McCain projected to win Florida, Rudy Guiliani finally gives up

After pinning all of his hopes on Florida's winner take all Republican primary...and losing...Rudy Guiliani has decided to drop out of the presidential contest and endorse his rival, John McCain, who triumphed over Mitt Romney in the Sunshine State. McCain, in his victory speech, lavished praise on Guiliani and spoke respectfully of the other remaining Republican contenders:

This was a hard fought election, and worth fighting hard for, but I've been on the other side of such contests before, and experienced the disappointment. I offer my best wishes to Governor Romney and his supporters.

You fought hard for your candidate, and the margin that separated us tonight surely isn't big enough for me to brag about or for you to despair. Governor Huckabee and his supporters, as always, brought to this campaign conviction and passion and something we don't always have enough of in these contests, good humor and grace.

And I want to thank, my dear friend, Rudy Giuliani, who invested his heart and soul in this primary, and who conducted himself with all the qualities of the exceptional American leader he truly is.

How touching.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is trying to milk her fifteen point plus showing over Obama for all it's worth, even though the Democratic National Committee has stripped Florida of its delegates. Clinton, of course, now wants those delegates to be seated and voting for her. She will claim momentum going into Super Tuesday even though none of the Democratic candidates actually campaigned in Florida.

Her campaign is making sure she is available for the cameras tonight - she's currently on MSNBC as I'm writing this, speaking at length with Keith Olbermann.

MSNBC's headline on the banner underneath Clinton reads: BREAKING NEWS/Clinton finishes 1st in Florida, Obama is 2nd but no delegates to be awarded.

So will this Sunshine State beauty contest influence what happens next week on Super Tuesday? Hillary Clinton's campaign hopes so, but Barack Obama and John Edwards will correctly call it a hollow victory.

As for the matter of Florida's delegates - the delegation may be uncontroversially seated at the convention but punished in another way - unless Clinton and Obama carry the competition all the way to the Denver.

Then there would be fireworks aplenty.