| Holiday is over for Rudy Giuliani as he battles to stay afloat in ...
He continued to hold formidable poll leads in Florida and in the biggest Super Tuesday prizes of California and his home state of New York. He defied political gravity by maintaining a lead in the Republican national polls, a remarkable achievement for a thrice-married, proabortion, pro-gun control defender of gay rights. His record in cutting crime rates in New York drastically, his impressive performance after the September 11 terror attacks, his ultra-hawkish foreign policy approach — and his argument that he was the most electable Republican — helped to appease many conservatives. Then the political world descended on Iowa and New Hampshire and Mr Giuliani sank from view quicker than an Everglades alligator. He also underestimated just how severely the early state voters would punish him for the heresy of ignoring them.
The audacity of John Edwards' farce
There's losing. There's losing honorably. And then there's John Edwards. Mike Huckabee is not going to be president. The loss in South Carolina, one of the most highly evangelical states in the union, made that plain. With a ceiling of 14 percent among nonevangelical Republicans, Huckabee's base is simply too narrow. But his was not a rise and then a fall. He came from nowhere to establish himself as the voice of an important national constituency. Huckabee will continue to matter, and might even carry enough remaining Southern states to wield considerable influence at a fractured Republican convention. Fred Thompson will also not be president. His campaign failed, but quite honorably. He never tacked. He never dissimulated. He refused to reinvent himself. He presented himself plainly and honestly.
SocGen reveals how it was duped in trading scam
In a statement on Sunday, the bank said its staffer created fictitious accounts to make it look as though his positions had been covered, when in fact they remained open. It said he also falsified documents to justify his actions. The anomalous trades only came to light on January 18 and SocGen said the trader had acknowledged "committing unauthorized acts and, particular, creating fictitious operations." SocGen's corporate and investment banking chief Jean-Pierre Mustier said there was no evidence of an accomplice, adding just one trader had unbundled the massive exposure. "If one trader can unwind this transaction, one person can make such a transaction," he said in a conference call. The trader used "very simple (financial) instruments" as a vehicle for his deals, which he then hid using high-tech smoke and mirrors, he said.
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