A rival campaign told me recently that Rudy Giuliani is/was going to pull out of New Hampshire. I was/am skeptical, and note that the candidate is giving a speech in Durham today, and will return Friday. (He does three events in Missouri on Wednesday.)

But it’s something to keep an eye on. Iowa certainly isn’t Giuliani’s focus right now. New Hampshire was a state he looked set to do well in, but now he’s at 16 percent (third place in the Fox News poll), 18 percent (second place, one point ahead of McCain in the Concord Monitor poll), 15 percent in Rasmussen (third place, and only a point ahead of Huckabee), 17 percent (third place in the Suffolk/WHDH poll). In all of those, Romney’s in the 31-33 percent range.

Will Giuliani be okay with a distant third in New Hampshire? Or would that have a cascading effect on his numbers in Michigan, South Carolina, Florida?

I wouldn’t give up on New Hampshire. But I guess we’ll see the evidence over the next few weeks…