NY Sun political blog notices FDT

FDT shows up on the radar, and it looks like Giuliani and McCain are losing support.

The story, at least on the Republican side, is that so far this month both Rudy Giuliani and John McCain are dipping in support. Mr. McCain's below 20, and Mr. Giuliani's just above 30.

So, why are both of these candidates falling? Mitt Romney has edged up ever so slightly (from 7 to 8 to 9) over the last three months, but the real story is Fred Thompson, as this graph below the fold should make clear...

[The Rest of the Story]

So far, we've decided not to include Fred Thompson in our indices. He has significant public support, but he's not a declared candidate. And if we are just going to start including popular folks who aren't running, why not include Newt Gingrich on the Republican side, Al Gore on the Democratic side, John Kerry on the Democratic side (OK, just kidding, he's not popular), or, well, just about anybody else. Soon, the chart would just look like a bowl of spaghetti — and no one wants that.

Still, he's becoming a major factor in the race as conservatives unhappy with the Big Three, who've been casting about for a conservative "savior" candidate, jump on the Draft Fred bandwagon

...So, how has the Fred Thompson boomlet affected the other candidates in the race? Well, it's interesting that since February, the last month where Mr. Thompson wasn't a factor, Mr. Giuliani and Mr. McCain have fallen in the neighborhood of 5 points each.

Courtesy of Ryan Sager at the NY Sun Political Blog

This reporter has been a solid source of opinion and news - give him a read regularly.