Rudy's Magnificent Obsession: Toppling Romney in NH

Rudy Giuliani’s potential presidential bid has moved beyond the consideration stage. The former mayor of New York City is driven to the point that he’s already plotting a strategy to topple GOP front-runner Mitt Romney in New Hampshire, Paul Bedard writes in his Washington Whispers column at U.S. News & World Report.

Bedard quotes Republican U.S. Rep. Peter King of New York as saying that running and winning this time is "almost a full-time business for him."

In addition, Giuliani plans to focus his early attention on New Hampshire rather than the Iowa caucuses “because beating Romney in the former Massachusetts governor's political backyard will propel the New Yorker's candidacy into the next two showdowns in South Carolina and Nevada,” Bedard writes.

"He would focus on New Hampshire almost entirely," Bedard quotes King as saying at a dinner Monday night that the conservative American Spectator magazine hosted. "He is very close to running."

Ditto for King, who is up for a presidential bid, bolstered by his own coterie of GOP backers, Bedard observes. Even though the odds are against King, he noted that a presidential run would give him a national podium to address “his concerns about terror attacks in America and charges that the Muslim community is not being cooperative enough with the FBI,” Bedard writes.

Although Giuliani has been coy about whether he plans to run, he has polled well, Bedard observes.