Fred Thompson gains - 2nd in Bloomberg poll

This is good - without spending a dime he is keeping pace and even passing some of the other candidates. After the ReadMore note the national support for Romney is still in single digits. As they note, some of that it due to the general electorate's "never vote for a Mormon" crowd. It still astounds me that people hold being a Mormon against Romney; there are plenty of reasons to oppose him, but thats not a legitimate one in my opinion.

In the Republican field, 29 percent of voters prefer Giuliani while McCain, an Arizona senator who once led the pack, slips to 12 percent, behind Thompson, who is preferred by 15 percent and said last month that he is considering a run for the presidency.

[The Rest of the Story]

Thompson's instant popularity suggests he has filled a void in the Republican field and his potential candidacy takes from all of the Republican candidates, the poll finds. He does especially well with self-described religious Republicans; 21 percent of those voters favor Thompson, compared with 17 percent for Giuliani, 62, and 10 percent for McCain, 70.

Romney, 60, who raised more money than any other Republican in the first quarter, is in single digits, with just 8 percent of Republican voters saying they would support him. This boggles my mind:Eleven percent of all voters say they couldn't vote for a Mormon.

Courtesy of Heidi Przybyla at Bloomberg Online

This and some other news got lost in the "deck clearing" FDT was doing yesterday regarding his health.