While the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire Primary get rid of a few candidates, the attrition really begins once the campaign goes more national, where money is truly an issue as White House hopefuls try to hang on.

Right now that's especially true on the Republican side, as Fred Thompson looks to save his campaign in South Carolina, as Rudy Giuliani stakes his future on winning in Florida and Mitt Romney looks for a "gold medal" in his native state of Michigan.

Romney's move to pull his television ads out of South Carolina and Florida and focus on Michigan shows that his inner circle knows how important a victory is right now. They need to show fundraisers and voters that they are truly a candidate for the GOP nomination.

Romney seems unlikely to win South Carolina or Florida - so realistically, Michigan is his best shot to get in the win column before the February 5th Super Tuesday.

"It's really do or die for Romney," says GOP strategist Scott Reed, who was campaign manager for Bob Dole in 1996.

"He has to win somewhere, and the one big asset he has are the resources, and the other campaigns do not have the resources," added Reed.

As for Rudy Giuliani's decision to basically wait until Florida on January 29th to make a stand, that drew little praise from Reed and others campaign veterans.

"Sometimes it's been hard to tell if Giuliani has ever had a strategy from the beginning of this campaign," said Reed.

"Giuliani cannot wait and lose the first four (contests) and think he's going to have any money and any support by the time he gets to Florida," Reed says.

Democratic strategist Tad Devine said Giuliani has run a bad race.

"I was asked about six weeks ago about his strategy, when he was opening offices in North Dakota and closing them down in New Hampshire, I thought it was preposterous," said Devine.

"I'll repeat that again today. I think it's preposterous."

Devine pointed to Al Gore's attempt to do the same thing in 1988, as Gore tried to use a Southern Strategy shaped around Super Tuesday. It ultimately failed.

As for the GOP nominee, Reed and Devine both see it shaping up as a battle between John McCain and Mike Huckabee.

"For the first time it looks like there's a path where McCain could win the nomination," said Reed.

Devine, who managed Al Gore's 2000 campaign and worked for John Kerry in 2004, said he thinks McCain would be a good candidate for the GOP in November.

"If John McCain's the nominee, I think he's the guy we fear the most on our side. We don't want to run against him. This is a guy who can attract votes across a broad political spectrum," said Devine.

Another Republican Leaving Congress

While the Presidential race evolves, the battle for Congress this election year continues to tilt away from the GOP because of a large number of lawmakers who have opted not to run for re-election.

The latest is Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) who has been under investigation as part of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

Doolittle came close to losing in 2006 and was being urged by other Republicans not to run for a 10th term in office. He's denied any wrongdoing in relation to Abramoff. The FBI raided his home in Virginia last year.

Doolittle becomes the 18th Republican in the US House to not run for re-election. As of now, only four Democrats won't be returning; two of them are running for the US Senate.