SLICK MOVE

From today's New York Post:

Rudy Giuliani, a prostate-cancer survivor who fought the disease seven years ago, will have a "comprehensive" physical exam and release the results, his aides said yesterday....

Asked by The Post about the ex-mayor's plans, a Giuliani campaign source said he had an overall checkup in December and got a "clean bill of health" and is cancer-free.

"The mayor will have a comprehensive physical examination, and his doctors will release the results of the examination to the public," said a campaign aide....

Assuming he's still as healthy as he was two months ago, that's very smart. Why? Well, as Tom Bevan of Real Clear Politics noted recently, Giuliani's poll numbers in New York actually weren't at their worst just before 9/11 -- they went up after bottoming out at 37% approval/57% disapproval on April 19, 2000. What happened after that? On April 27, Giuliani announced his cancer diagnosis. He dropped out of the Senate race with Hillary Clinton, and by June 14 his approval/disapproval was 49%/45% -- his best showing in 18 months. (By July 2001, he was at 50%/40%.)

Revealing the checkup results is Rudy's way of letting America know he's had cancer -- which a lot of Americans probably don't know, and which is sure to elicit a lot of public sympathy, just as it did here in New York. And, if he's healthy, drawing attention to this fact is unlikely to hurt him in the race, given the fact that his chief rival is also a cancer survivor.

The December checkup went by unnoticed, even here in New York, but expect this test to be played up in a big way by Giuliani's unofficial press office, the Murdoch and Murdoch-affiliated media. You'll see trhe results in the Post, on Fox, and on Drudge. I think one key goal of the Giuliani campaign right now is to make him seem appealing and likable (see also the recent kiss cover of the Post) -- probably in anticipation of a campaign in which Rudy and his people plan to get very, very nasty.