Outsider Thompson Looks Impressive In Florida Poll
BY JOHN TOSCANO

Things are going so well for prospective Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson that he might never make a formal announcement that he's in the race.

The former U.S. Senator from Tennessee, who had been portraying a district attorney in the "Law and Order" television series, last week ran second to Rudy Giuliani in a Quinnipiac University poll.

That was a major improvement for the bald, stoop-shouldered actor who in April in the same poll, ran fourth with only 6 percent of the vote.

In the poll taken last week, Thompson trailed Giuliani by a 31 percent to 14 percent count, but passed United States Senator John McCain to take second place to front-runner Giuliani, the former New York City mayor.

Thompson bested McCain (Arizona) by four points (14 to 10 percent). Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney trailed the field with 8 percent of the tallies.

Meanwhile, in the Quinnipiac survey, Giuliani defeated the leading Democrat, Hillary Clinton, by a narrow margin, 47 to 42 percent.

But Clinton handily defeated all rival Democrats. She bested both Barack Obama and John Edwards by double digits.

Thompson and his strategists are apparently so encouraged by his Florida showing that he's considering entering the Iowa straw poll in August now that Giuliani and McCain have bowed out of it.

Both Giuliani and McCain cited the cost of competing in the straw poll, which the Giuliani camp placed at $3 million. A Giuliani campaign official said the high cost of competing in early, major primaries, such as that in Florida on January 29 of next year and California, New York, and Texas a week later on February 5, was forcing Giuliani to make new assessments of the road map.

However, although skipping the Iowa straw poll, both Giuliani and McCain said they would still compete in the Iowa caucuses in January.

In a race in which there are questions about Giuliani's positions on key conservative issues, and in which McCain has followed President George W. Bush too closely on the unpopular Iraq war, Thompson presents a workable alternative for the key conservative GOP vote.

Thompson has been well received at conservative meetings, drawing applause as he describes his conservative positions. However, his failure to get in the race has left him far behind in the campaign financing department. He has given no hard clues about when he will enter the race, if he ever does.

In other campaign news, Giuliani and Democrat John Edwards set up their own debate last week over a single issue; the Iraq war.

Giuliani, who has made the war one of his major issues, attacked the former U.S. Senator as a know-nothing on the conflict.

Responding through the press, Edwards lumped Giuliani in with President Bush, whose popularity has plunged as the conflict has degenerated into an unwinnable fight for the U.S.