(...) Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani will deliver a speech Saturday aimed at laying out a broad governing vision for the country, an address his campaign is touting as a turning point in his bid for the Republican nomination. "This will be a closing statement of why he wants to be president," said a senior Giuliani adviser familiar with the speech. The broad goal, according to the adviser, is to define "what will America be like after a Giuliani presidency." For much of the campaign to date, Giuliani has talked almost exclusively about his record as mayor of New York as opposed to what he would do as president. Saturday's speech will change that, his advisers argue, with a speech that will carry the tagline: "Tested. Ready. Now."

The locale and timing of the speech send a signal of their own. Giuliani will deliver the speech in Tampa, Florida, a not so subtle symbol of the importance of the state to Giuliani's path the to the nomination. The Sunshine State and its Jan. 29 presidential primary has long been seen as Giuliani's firewall as poll after poll shows him with wide leads over all of his potential rivals. As for the timing, the Giuliani campaign believes the speech falls on perhaps on the last day before the Christmas rush begins in earnest -- wiping out the ability to firmly communicate a message to voters.

Chris Cilizza, The Fix (blog del Washington Post).