From social security to push polling to his love of soggy southern green beans, Fred Thompson held court at a local diner here in Columbia this morning in front of a standing room only crowd of about 100 people or so.
The appearance was vintage Thompson: freewheeling, off the cuff and some "southern nice" jabs at his opponents.
He went after Mike Huckabee on the push polling that's been done down here. Huckabee and his campaign have distanced themselves from it but Thompson mentioned the dirty tactics and joked about how "he won't mention any names but Governor Huckabee says he doesn't know anything about it." He also took a shot at Mitt Romney without mentioning his name by saying some of his opponents have spent a whole lot of money here but are now leaving the state.
Of course there were the boiler plate issues like social security, a balanced budget, NAFTA and more. But the question for Thompson is can he overtake Huckabee among evangelicals? His problem isn't so much Huckabee as it is McCain and Romney to a certain extent. That's because McCain and Romney take key votes away from Thompson. There may just be simply too many elephants in the race for Thompson to really go after Huckabee one-on-one and win.
Thompson needs to win here to go on. It really is that simple. He needs a jolt somewhere to remain viable in Florida and on February 5. The people here say they like the fact that he is ready to lead from day one and that you know what you're going to get in Thompson. That seems to be the draw, the appeal. We'll see if that translates into victory this Saturday.
Comments?