COCONUT GROVE - At a campaign stop yesterday morning in Little Havana, Rudy Giuliani regaled two hundred older Cuban-Americans at a nutrition center on Calle Ocho. Amid spontaneous bursts of adoration from some in the crowd (Los Cubanos se queremos Rudy!), Giuliani spoke glowingly of the Cuban-American community, citing their story as a testament to the greatness of freedom in America.

"Most of you came here with no money in your pocket, because he (Castro) took it," Giuliani said. "But you brought with you what was in your soul, and no tyrant could take that from you."

Giuliani is at his best when he's squaring off against bullies and dictators, and there's no question a good part of his appeal among the Cuban-American comes from his brass knuckle approach to Castro. Giuliani blasted Castro as a "vicious, murderous, communist dictator" and told the audience that one of his "biggest dreams" as president would be to see a democratic Cuba.

After imploring the group to get out and vote (one woman stood up and said she would get five votes for Giuliani. Rudy stopped to clarify whether she would get five other people to vote or whether she was suggesting she would vote 5 times herself. "We're not Democrats," he chided, "one vote, one person is how we do it here."), Rudy concluded by waxing rhapsodic about what a Giuliani presidency would mean for the Cuban-American community.

"If I'm elected you will have a president who knows you, who understands you, who respects you, and who holds your dream as a dream of my own," Giuliani said. Needless to say, the crowd was ecstatic.

If Rudy Giuliani were running for Mayor of Miami, he'd win in a landslide. According to the latest Mason-Dixon poll, Giuliani has 52% support among Hispanics in Florida, twenty-two points better than his next closest competitor, John McCain.

The problem for Rudy, obviously, is that he's not running for Mayor. He's currently running to be Governor of Florida - and then, provided he wins on Tuesday, President of the United States.

But outside of South Florida, where Giuliani holds an 8 point lead over McCain, he is trailing his competitors badly in every other region of the Sunshine State.

Aside from the Cuban-American community, which is projected to be roughly 15% of the electorate on Tuesday, Giuliani's message has clearly lost resonance among other likely Republican voters.

On Giuliani's signature issues of national security and terrorism, for example, he now ranks a distant third behind John McCain and Mitt Romney according to the latest Mason-Dixon survey. On the other top issue in the minds of Republican voters this year, the economy, Giuliani is even further back in fourth place, winning less support than Mike Huckabee.

Fred Thompson's exit from the race last week made Giuliani's task of winning Florida much more difficult. But what may hurt Rudy most of all was yesterday's endorsement of John McCain by Senator Mel Martinez.

Martinez has significant pull in the Cuban-American community, and to the extent his endorsement siphons off even a small percentage of the Cuban vote to McCain, it could be the final nail in Giuliani's coffin on Tuesday.

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