South Carolina's primary, coming on January 19 after Iowampshire, is a big deal for the Republicans - since 1980 the winner in SC has gone on to take the Republican nomination. But it's an even bigger deal for Fred Thompson. Hailing from the great state of Tennessee, Thompson needs to make a good showing in the first Southern state to hold a primary.
Thompson's campaign is largely skipping Iowa and New Hampshire, and his ratings are anaemic in both states. So he needs to actually win in SC to get on the map. And here's the baaaad news: the latest polling from South Carolina shows Thompson in more or less a three-way tie with Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney.
Taxi for Mr Thompson...
In the same poll on the Democratic side of the aisle, Hillary Clinton gets a 10-point lead over Barack Obama, by 33% to 23%, with Edwards on 10%.
In another interesting sidelight from the poll:
When those of both parties who said they voted for George W. Bush as president in 2004 were asked if they would change their vote if they could go back and do so, almost 92% of Republicans said no and over one-third of Democrats said they would (33.8%), while 62.3% of them said they stood by their original decision.
