I thought it was a mostly solid ad, and it’s important for Giuliani to emphasize his record transforming New York City. By saying he’s “somebody who has dealt with crisis almost on a regular basis” it is inclusive of 9/11, but doesn’t explicitly say so. On the minus side, I think it was a mistake for him to say in the ad that the American people are “not going to find perfection” in him. There’s no reason, unless prompted, to say something like that. It just reminds people of his messy personal life, Kerik, etc. Also, I thought the images showed while he was talking about New York City before he became mayor could have been grimier, with boarded up windows, trash on the streets, prostitutes walking around Times Square, the sound of sirens in the background, etc. Maybe the producers thought that would have been over the top (though it would not have been an exaggeration).

Also worth noting is that according to the press release, the ad is set to run in New Hampshire starting Thursday, but not Iowa. This reinforces the belief that the Giuliani campaign has largely written off Iowa, and will be focusing on the Granite State to make its push in the early states. With several candidates now all on the air in New Hampshire, it should be interesting to see how stable Romney’s lead is there in the next few weeks.