MIAMI - The Republican presidential contest moved to the Sunshine State Sunday in search of clarity before February's nationwide primary day overwhelms the race.
But clarity may be in short order as a recent poll showed the top four candidates -- John McCain, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani -- in a virtual dead heat in the state.
The GOP candidates are set to hopscotch through Florida over the next eight days, appealing to Christian conservatives and military members in the Panhandle, swing voters from Tampa to Orlando along the "Interstate 4 corridor," and meeting with Midwestern retirees in southwest Florida and Cuban conservatives in South Florida.
A fifth candidate, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, has no immediate plans to campaign here, said a source. His campaign is on hold as he ponders whether to continue. Thompson flew to Tennessee Sunday to visit his mother, who is in the hospital with pneumonia.
The day after McCain won South Carolina, both Giuliani and Romney began gunning for him.
"John voted against the Bush tax cuts, I think on both occasions, and sided with the Democrats," said Giuliani, who has camped out here hoping for a win Jan. 29, while virtually ignoring the first six contests.
A buoyant McCain retorted: "If someone hasn't run a primary, I can understand why they would attack the frontrunner."
For his part, Romney continued to try to paint McCain as an insider who is part of the problem and an opponent of President Bush's tax cuts who can't handle the nation's economic challenges. "I don't think you're going to see change in Washington by somebody who's been such a part of it all of these years," Romney said.
McCain shrugged off the criticism, saying he was one of the original foot soldiers in the Reagan revolution.
