A few days after the latest Republican debate and the official Hollywood entry of Fred Thompson into the race, the actor/lobbyist is gaining strength in the polls. USA Today/Gallup has Thompson up 3 points since August, while Rudy Giuliani continues to lead and John McCain seems to have stopped the bleeding:
Giuliani 33%
Thompson: 22%
McCain: 15%
Romney: 10%
Huckabee: 5%
Brownback: 2%
Paul: 1%
Tancredo: 1%
Hunter: * (ouch)
I could use this as an opportunity to once again go into my Huckabee Is Not a Frontrunner routine, but you get the point. He’s still looking good for a VP slot, though.
Meanwhile, Rasmussen’s daily tracking poll shows a much bigger bounce for Thompson, landing him at the top of the pile:
Thompson 26%
Giuliani 22%
Romney 13%
McCain 12%
Huckabee 6%
Rasmussen comments:
Thompson’s gains since announcing have come primarily among conservatives likely to vote in a Republican Primary. In polling completed since his announcement, Thompson leads Giuliani by 12-points among conservative primary voters. That’s up from a five-point edge before the announcement. Conservatives account for more than 60% of GOP primary voters. Two-thirds of Republican voters view Giuliani as politically moderate or liberal.
In addition to Thompson’s announcement, Giuliani may have lost some ground by proclaiming on CNN that illegal immigration is not a crime.
This is significant, and in terms of the race for the nomination, good news for Thompson. His previous bounce had come thanks almost entirely to moderates, who had been drifting away from the hyper-partisan Giuliani. Now Hollywood Fred is getting conservatives, too. As the Glenn Beck immigration flap illustrates, Giuliani may be having an increasingly difficult time threading the needle between his conflicting images (is he a liberal or a hardliner?) – if so, Thompson stands to benefit.
3 Responses to “Horserace 9/10/07: Thompson Looking Bouncy”
I think “flap” was meant as a factual observation about how the comments were taken by conservatives. You know, I once had a dream, a beautiful dream, that Lazy Fred would drift to the nomination through the desperation of southerners and conservatives to find a saviour, then implode in the general due to his own laziness and incompetence, undistinguished political career and shady lobbying past. I had come to believe that like all my dreams, this one would not come true. But reading this post I feel a bit like a child again, who has wished upon just the right star.
thompson has next to no chance at beating rudy. giuliani’s organization dwarfs thompsons, rudy is going to win his second straight quarter in fundraising, embarassing thompson big entry, and he will shred thompson in debates, along with anyone else. thompson will disolve romney’s support, but when mccain leaves almost all his support shifts to rudy, according to gallup. one-on-one rudy destroys thompson, but freddie will make a nice token vp.
Something to say?
so telling the truth is now a flap on this site? geez. even tom tancredo, mr illegal immagration has stated this fact about illegal immagration: its a civil matter under the law.
Left by matt
September 10, 2007 at 5:14pm