At the Atlantic’s blogs, Ross Douthat thinks Giuliani still has a sliver—just a sliver—of a chance at the Republican nomination despite his missteps on abortion. Matt Yglesias thinks the NYT story this morning on Giuliani embracing abortion rights pretty much dooms him, writing, “John McCain and Mitt Romney should, in my opinion, be popping some champagne this morning.” I think Yglesias is probably right, but it also seems to me that, by the end of the debate, Giuliani had already blown an engine and started trailing smoke. It wasn’t just his position on abortion, per se, that hurt him (although it certainly did). It was his inability to be clear and coherent on the issue and, maybe even more important, the fact that, at the debate, he seemed surprisingly unprepared to handle abortion-related questions. For a guy running on strength, readiness, toughness, and problem-solving ability, appearing to be unprepared—especially for something as easy to expect as this—is a real problem.