Grassfire.org conducted a poll of 39,000 conservatives and found support for Fred Thompson at 28%, double the #2 Mitt Romney at 14%. Fred's support will obviously vary in the coming 2 months or so due to his getting into the fray. Now of course, I feel compelled to point out Ron Paul's ranking in this poll. He actually did quite well, moving from 6% in may to 13%. And yes, that does place him in third place in a very large poll.
Other very interesting tidbits from this poll. In a Giuliani-Clinton race, 29% said they would abstain or vote 3rd party. 25% said this of a Romney-Clinton race. I think this is rather telling of the love that conservatives have for these two liberals even if it doesn't say quite whom they support. I suppose that one could say that 10-13% of those numbers could well come from the Dr. Paul supporters and therefore may not fully reflect the party at large but rather those conservatives that are rather fed up with the fascist wing of the party, A.K.A Big Government Conservatives, A.K.A. Compassionate Conservatives.
Grassfire is a network of over one million conservatives out of which 39,440 participated in this poll. Paul gained 13% of this somewhat self selected group's favor and I think it must be remembered that Dr. Paul's support comes from both sides of the aisle. He is a candidate that could actually pull votes away from HRC as opposed to causing conservative "defectors" like Rudy McRomney. He is certainly a more viable and "electable" candidate than this trio. I think at this point Rudy needs to be finished off and then Fred needs to be faced. With luck Rudy Ghouliani will destroy his chances much like Senator McCain did.