Thompson Hopes To Finish In Top Three In Iowa
Recent poll numbers out of Iowa have not been kind to Fred Thompson. The most recent CBS News/New York Times poll put the former Tennessee senator in fourth place at 9 percent in the state, and other surveys have shown his numbers only falling since he officially entered the race.
So it might not be surprising that, at a campaign stop in Orange City, Iowa, today, Thompson didn't set the expectations bar too high when asked if he needed to finish in the top three or actually win the state's Jan. 3 caucuses to have a chance at the Republican nomination. "I probably don't have to win, but we've got to do better than that," he said, referring to his fourth-place position. "I'm planning on doing better than that."
If Thompson plans on cracking the top three, as his statement implies, he'll likely have to take away support from longtime-leader Mitt Romney or a surging Mike Huckabee, who has momentum on his side, as well as hope for Rudy Giuliani, now in third, to falter. That's no easy task, but a lot can happen between Thanksgiving and New Year's.
Update: At an event in La Mars, Iowa, Thompson backed away from his earlier statement and declined to say where he thinks he needs to finish in Iowa to stay competitive. "I'm not going to get into where I want to finish," Thompson said. "I need to do well in Iowa because I consider this an area that is made for the way I Iike to campaign. That is, get out and talk to folks one-on-one or in small groups. So I need to do well here but I'm not going to rank it right now."
He also made thinly-veiled references to the immigration policies of two of the men he hopes to overtake in Iowa: Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, and Giuliani, a former New York mayor. "I don't believe at the end of the day Des Moines wants to follow the pattern of New York City or Little Rock, Arkansas," he said. "I think they will reject becoming a sanctuary city or anything close to that."