According to this poll (scroll down to question 4), Fred Thompson, former Senator, TV cantankerous curmudgeon DA, and all around freaky tough guy, is people’s third choice for President (on the Republican side), quite literally coming out of nowhere. Here’s some interesting analysis (emphases added):
On the Republican side, former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson shook up the field when he said he would consider getting into the presidential race. These days, Thompson is familiar as the actor who plays District Attorney Arthur Branch on the NBC drama Law & Order.
Chosen by 12% of Republican and Republican-leaning voters, Thompson is third in the Republican field, jumping ahead of a half-dozen contenders. He trails former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, at 31%, and Arizona Sen. John McCain, at 22%. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich is at 8%.
One reason for Thompson’s fast start is name identification, says Republican strategist Rich Galen. “More people watch him every week on TV than will vote in total next Feb. 5,” he says, the day of primaries in about a dozen states. . . .
Thompson gained ground as Giuliani lost it. In the USA TODAY Poll taken March 2-4, Giuliani was at 44%, 13 percentage points higher than in the new survey. McCain had been at 20%, 2 points lower than now.
Backing for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has dropped. He was chosen by 3%, the same as Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback. Romney’s support in early March had been 8%.
* Romney’s support drops to within the margin of error of not existing (that’s 3% support in a poll where the margin of error is 3%).
* Giuliani’s support drops 13 percentage points since the last USA Today/Gallup poll, March 2-4 (that’s gotta hurt).
* Fred Thompson (not running, by the way) is now the No. 3 in the GOP field, at 12%. . . .
There are other, state-by-state polls that tell a slightly different story. In New Hampshire, an ARG polls shows Mr. Giuliani dipping, possibly because of Mr. Thompson. But an ARG poll of likely Iowa caucus-goers shows Newt Gingrich as the biggest loser (with his poll numbers cut more than in half), and not a big change for Mr. Giuliani. In Ohio, a Quinnipiac poll also showed Mr. Gingrich as the biggest loser.
Do you read “Get Religion”? They have had some interesting articles about Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney in the past couple of days.
I will always think of him as “all around Bad Ass” thanks to you, by the way.
I suppose Ron Paul polled last or was not even an option. But don’t count him out. The last time he ran for President he finished third in the general election!