I’m not sure whether this is a legitimate assessment that he is seriously behind Huckabee and Romney in Iowa and Romney in New Hampshire, or if this is just an attempt to lower expectations.
Considering that Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York have primaries on February 5, and that he should do well there (remember the people who know and hate him live in New York city, and are not Republithugs), it could be a bit of both.
I think that, unless Guiliani plays his “keeping the n***ers down” card very hard in South Carolina, he won’t be competitive there, and it may all be over before February.