Fred's Surge

Beginning of the end for the Giuliani boom? Rasmussen has the latest national numbers ...

Thompson - 26%
Giuliani- 22%
Romney - 13%
McCain - 12%
Huckabee - 6%

Take it for what it's worth. On the other (better) side, HRC still leads the pack with 43%. Obama brings up the rest with 22%; Edwards 16%; Richardson 4%.

Two things that are interesting about Thompson's numbers. One is the relative speed with which he's moved up over the past few months despite being a relatively unknown entity. Second is the still jumbled state of the GOP field. It'll be interesting to see what becomes of both fields after the February 5th megaprimary. Though not a done deal, I'd still expect Hillary to be prohibitively ahead of the rest and likely to widen that edge with others dropping out. On the GOP side, though ... wait and see. As it stands, it's entirely possible that Feb. 5 could artificially produce a frontrunner despite there being a lack of widespread public support for a nominee. That strikes me as somewhat similar to Kerry's problem coming out of the primaries in 2004.