FORT MYERS, FLA. — For an hour Monday, Rudolph W. Giuliani passionately made his case to voters seated in the Shell Point retirement community chapel.
He talked of tax cuts and terrorist attacks, of building up the military and cracking down on illegal immigration.
But in the end, he didn't seem to close the deal.
Dozens of the more than 1,000 who attended the town hall event took off before Giuliani finished his speech, leaving rows of seats empty.
"I didn't hear anything I hadn't heard before," said Barbara Vitello, 71. "It's the first time ever I'm going into the [presidential] election not knowing who I'll vote for," she said.
Her 79-year-old husband, Joe, agreed.
As his Republican rivals were campaigning ahead of this week's presidential primaries in Michigan and South Carolina, Giuliani was crisscrossing the Sunshine State.
Florida is crucial to his strategy, and a win in the Jan. 29 primary would give Giuliani momentum going into the Super Tuesday contests on Feb. 5. His campaign recently unveiled several new ads here and has moved dozens of staffers and volunteers into the state to help with absentee balloting.
But political experts have questioned Giuliani's focus on Florida as his national poll numbers have been sliding. Last week, the campaign also announced that about a dozen Giuliani staffers would forgo their pay in January so the money could be used elsewhere.
Since his bus tour began Sunday, the former New York mayor has met with seniors in Fort Myers, a group of affluent voters in Naples and Cuban American worshipers at an evangelical mega-church in Miami.
And, like the Vitellos, many who heard Giuliani were not convinced they should vote for him.
Cindy Lightner, 45, stood at the back of The Bay House, a riverfront restaurant in Naples, where about 200 people gathered Monday for a Giuliani event.
Within the first five minutes, he ridiculed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and talked of his leadership on Sept. 11 -- two recurring themes in his stump speech. He also talked about tort reform, healthcare, illegal immigration, creating a national catastrophe fund and the "Islamic terrorists' war against us."
Lightner, a teacher, listened intently to his pitch. She said she liked Giuliani's position on abortion rights (he supports them) and what he had said about creating tamper-proof identity cards for immigrants. But Republican rivals Mitt Romney or John McCain could also get her vote.
