FREDDY, SET, GO! HERE COMES THOMPSON

"IN JUST two weeks, Fred Thompson will finally announce his formal entry into the 2008 presidential race and instantly become the biggest Republican threat to Rudy Giuliani.

The long-anticipated move by the former "Law and Order" star begins today with his arrival at the Iowa State Fair, where he will face his first real test before actual voters. Giuliani still holds a 10-point advantage over him in national polls, according to RealClearPolitics, but Thompson has seen his own support steadily grow while Giuliani's slowly erodes, from a high of nearly 40 percent earlier this year to below 30 percent now.

The biggest question for Republicans frustrated with the field is whether Thompson has waited so long to enter the race that he's blown any chance of capturing the nomination.

In the months since he began openly flirting with the idea, Thompson's fund-raising has disappointed supporters, he's burned through staff, and a negative story line about his wife, Jeri, meddling with the staff has begun to dog the campaign.

Yet he remains in the strongest position to pick off Giuliani, and hopes to become the real straight talker with big, gutsy ideas whose conservative credentials are beyond reproach.

Thompson's biggest gift over the last few months has been the collapse of Arizona Sen. John McCain's campaign. Once the presumed favorite, McCain is skidding barely above single digits in national polls.

Traditional political observers, of course, go berserk if you consider national polls. They look only at the small states that vote early in the primary contest, such as Iowa and New Hampshire, where such second-tier candidates as Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are dominating.

Not this year. With so many states moving their primaries up for an early mammoth Tuesday, the advantage goes to nationally recognized candidates running campaigns nationwide. Giuliani's still the favorite. Thompson's poised to steal his thunder."

The author of the above might have missed a cliche or two here and there, but still managed to make his deadline to provide a story that offers absolutely nothing of worth but has Fred's name in the headline so folks will still have a look. Trying to pass off John McCain as the "presumed favorite" when everyone ELSE knew that only the media was doing so bespeaks either a complete misunderstanding of the electorate or just another Jurassic Press work of fiction. McCain was lionized by the liberal media precisely BECAUSE he was un-electable but what the liberal media still does not understand is the fact that not all that many people pay it much attention lately.

Sure, it's still the place to go for pictures of cars on fire or celebrity goings on but the handwriting was on the wall when the much beloved Bill Clinton himself could never get the majority of voters to pay HIM any attention despite the absolute adoration lavished by the old timers who are so far behind the curve they still believe it to be a straight line.

Fred Thompson doesn't have half of what's necessary to take down both Rudy and Mitt, not now, but there's plenty of time for someone to make that fatal misstep ala Johnny Dean, and shift the voters and their money to someone else. And there are a lot of folks such as yours truly who are waiting to see if Fred has been doing more than testing the waters and is serious about all this. Still and all, cash is king and so far it is not clear from whence Fred's is coming.