A Time Machine In Florida

SANFORD -- Step into the time machine, and we;re back in 2007, when Mitt Romney and John McCain are sparring over who can unify conservatives and who's a flip-flopper. Rudy Giuliani? A before-thought to the degree that today, he's an after-thought.

There was no comity left from which the final day of campaigning could further degenerate, and the charges, prosecuted today by both candidates at Sanford International Airport, were flying as fast and loose as a Lear Jet.

Romney called McCain "desperate" and accused him of making things up. He called him a "liberal" for working on an immigration compromise with a liberal Democrat like Joe Lieberman.

McCain expanded his attack on Romney's record in Massachusetts. "One thing I think we should really give Governor Romney credit for -- he is consistent," McCain said. "He has consistently taken both sides of any major issue. He has consistently flip-flopped on every issue."

On AM talk radio, McCain's campaign is airing ads that say that Republicans "can't afford Mitt Romney," who the ads claim "loses to Hillary Clinton by 16 points." Only McCain "can stop Hillary Clinton." Another says Romney's record in Massachusetts "should scare every Florida Republican. Four hundred million dollars."

Unaffiliated supporters of McCain are calling supporters of Rudy Giuliani calling a vote for Giuliani a "waste." Here in Sanford, they put fliers labeled "MItt-Flop" on the windshields of Romney's guests.

Earlier in the day, according to CBS News's Scott Conroy, Romney mentioned "a story" he once read where McCain said he had given some thought to being Sen. John Kerry's running mate in 2004." "Had someone asked me that question, there would not have been a nanosecond of thought about it," Romney said. "It would have been an immediate laugh.”

In Sanford, Romney cited a litany of McCain "accomplishments" that he said reflected the Arizonan's liberal apostasy, including the McCain-Lieberman trade-and-cap emissions program.

“There’s another guy running on our side, Sen. McCain... a good man, a hero...his views on the economy, well, I think are sort of summed up by his own statement that it’s not really something he understands that well. He’s said that a couple of times. Well, I do understand the economy, and I’m not going to be being any vice president to John McCain, either. That’s not going to happen.”

If Romney has one advantage heading into tomorrow's it in his campaign vast architecture. State director Mandy Fletcher presides over 11 staff members, dozens of near-full time volunteers and hundreds of part-time volunteers.

"Sen. McCain and our folks are tied here in Florida, and so that means we've got to get our folks out," Romney said in Sanford, gesturing to a roped off ad hoc phone bank, where volunteers used cell phones and call scripts to rope in supporters.

Tracking polls conducted for a statewide ballot initiative campaign jibe with three public polls showing a dead heat.