Sen. John McCain buried Rudy Giulianis presidential hopes inFlorida last night, despite the winners adamant opposition and thelosers vocal support on whether to establish a national catastrophefund. What does the primary vote mean for cat fund backers? VoteDemocratic!

If Sen. McCain is elected President, Florida, Louisiana, Californiaand other states vulnerable to massive windstorm or earthquakelosses can forget about seeing the cat fund idea being pushed byAllstate and its lobbyist, ProtectingAmerica.org, ever coming tofruition.

Rudy ran hard on the idea of establishing a national cat fund toback up state property insurance facilities, even though he claimsto be against government intrusion into the private market. Forexample, despite the fact that some 50 million Americans lackhealth insurance, while tens of millions of others struggle to makepremium or co-payments, Rudy mocks calls for a national healthinsurance system. Yet he saw no contradiction in calling for anational catastrophe insurance fund.

Meanwhile, straight-talkin' John McCain resisted the temptationto pander for Florida's crucial primary votes, stating emphaticallythat a national cat fund is not the answer to the state's propertyinsurance woes.

“I do understand the problem and I do know how FEMA has to befixed, and it has to be fixed so that we can perform the rightfulrole of government, which is to help people whenever there is anatural or manmade disaster or catastrophe,” Sen. McCain told theFlorida Sun-Sentinel on Jan. 23.

He said he would vote against HR 3355, the Homeowners DefenseAct of 2007, sponsored by a pair of Florida Democrats in the U.S.House (Reps. Ron Klein and Tim Mahoney), adding that the bill hasno chance of passing the U.S. Senate–something I have said for twoyears now.

Mr. Giuliani tried to capitalize on Sen. McCain's unpopularstance in one of his TV ads.

“Some say we don't need a national catastrophe fund–that FEMAcan handle disasters,” the announcer says. “Others say they haven'tlooked at it yet and want to sit down with insurance companiesfirst.” Heaven forbid!

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney did what he does best–talk out of bothsides of his mouth–stating that while “the cat fund makes sense tome,” he doesn't want a truly national disaster insurance planbecause that would mean “very low-risk homeowners, or low-riskstates, subsidizing high-risk homeowners or high-risk states.” Hewants a regional plan instead–which pretty much mirrors Sen.McCain's most recent musings on the subject.

In any case, Sen. McCain's firm opposition to the cat fund ideadid not cost him politically, which shows you the issue has lostits potency after two quiet hurricane seasons. American voters havea short memory indeed.

In fact, despite his position on the cat fund, Sen. McCainmanaged to secure the 11th hour endorsement of Gov. Charlie Crist(talk about jumping on the bandwagon!), and crushed Rudy, mostlikely driving the former New York mayor out of the race. Mr.Romney came in second, but Sen. McCain clearly has the momentum nowgoing into Super Tuesday.

That means the best bet–indeed, perhaps the only hope–for thosebacking a national cat fund is to vote Democratic in November, asSens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both say they support theconcept. Fat chance, right?

However, don't write the cat fund off as a political factor justyet. If another major hurricane hits the U.S. mainland between nowand Election Day, and Sen. McCain sticks to his stand against anational cat fund, that could conceivably cost him Florida in thegeneral election. If he loses Florida, he almost certainly canforget about the White House.

What do you folks think?