Fred debuts at #2

From The Washington Post:

Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani continues to lead the race for the Republican presidential nomination, but he has seen a dramatic erosion in his support, which now stands at its lowest point of the year, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Giuliani's support dropped from 37 percent in a July poll to 28 percent in the latest survey, and his decline from February has been even more sharp. Then, he had the backing of 53 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents and had a better than 2 to 1 advantage over his closest rival.

Former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.), who formally entered the race last week after months of exploration, now stands in second place in the GOP field, with 19 percent. That is nearly double the support he received in an April poll taken as he began to express serious interest in running.

The article goes on to make the point that McCain and Giuliani are appealing to the same group of voters, thus depressing Giuliani's numbers. Romney meanwhile is stalled at around 10% and going nowhere, Huckabee has risen to about 5% and is the best positioned of the also-rans for a possible shot at the vice presidency and ass-clown Ron Paul remains dead least with around 1%.

The bit about McCain and Julie Annie each appealing to the same set of voters isn't really surprising. If you watch the debates the two of them are practically making out on stage. I think that it is obvious what the GOP ticket would look like if Julie gets the nomination, Giuliani/McCain - something which would likely doom Republican chances in 2008 since it would take the two most disliked candidates and put them together.

Let's just keep hoping and praying that Fred keeps building his momentum.