If you've been following the news lately, you already know that there is a REAL OPENING for Fred in the Iowa Caucuses. While Mitt Romney's poll numbers in Iowa are meandering and Mike Huckabee's are dropping fast in Iowa and nationally, the last three weekly Strategic Vision polls show Fred with steady and solid upward momentum in Iowa. The December 18th poll has Fred at 16%--up 3 points from his number one week earlier:



In order to capitalize on this momentum, we've assembled a hardy band of 14 Young Professional and FredHead volunteers prepared to brave this brutal winter weather and drive all the way to Iowa to volunteer for Fred Thompson on the eve of the Iowa Caucuses.

The group will be leaving on Friday, December 28th and returning on Tuesday, January 1st.

All of these volunteers are making sacrifices to go on this trip. In addition to the time and effort involved, there will be a significant expense in travel and lodging. Because of the expenses, several of the volunteers will only be able to go if they can get financial help.

If you can help these folks out with covering the cost of the trip, it would be a big help to them--and, most importantly, to Fred's campaign.

We've set up a special account at Fred08.com just for this trip. You can donate via this LINK.

Anything you can give, even $10 or $20, would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

While this was a great beginning to the Illinois Fred Heads grassroots organization we've moved to a new home. Please visit us at illinoisfredheads.com. We look forward to seeing you there!

Posted at Rush's site:

the genuine moderate as opposed to conservative aspects of three of the top-tier, four of the top-tier candidates were on full-fledged display last night. There was one candidate who did not display any moderateness or liberalism or have any of his past forays into those areas displayed, and that candidate was Fred Thompson. %u2026 %u2026we have a campaign now where most of the candidates are not genuine conservatives. They may be saying they are, but in their past they have done some things that are not conservative in any way, shape, manner, or form %u2014 and I think a lot of those things are being overlooked even by friends of mine in the conservative media because the obsession is Hillary. [%u2026]

While everybody is talking about Fred Thompson, %u201CHe%u2019s too lazy. He%u2019s too lackadaisical. He doesn%u2019t seem to have whole lot of energy.%u201D Fine and dandy. I%u2019m not going to argue with people about your perceptions of attitudes and so forth. I will say this. I don%u2019t think anybody would get into this mess running for the presidency, the media and all of these things. You can%u2019t imagine what these people go through. You wouldn%u2019t want to go through it, and I can%u2019t imagine somebody put themselves through it if they really don%u2019t want it. You know, one of the arguments about Fred Thompson is, %u201CWell, I can%u2019t see the fire in his belly.%u201D Well, he%u2019s got a different personality than the others. We%u2019ll just have to see how all this shakes out. But those are the high points that I took.

From Roy Beck of Numbers USA:

IN A TREND OF INCREASINGLY DETAILED EXCELLENT POLICY PROMISES BY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES -- THOMPSON HAS SET A NEW HIGH STANDARD

When Fred Thompson came out with a detailed immigration policy this fall, I knew it was very good but was too busy leading the fight against amnesties in the Senate to give thorough attention.

Reading Thompson's full proposed immigration policy this afternoon, I am blown away by its depth, its breadth and at how it would so fundamentally change Americans' future for the better.

Read more of Roy's analysis below...

Posted at USA Today:

Twenty-eight percent of Republicans surveyed nationally said they favored Giuliani in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, followed by Fred Thompson with 19%, John McCain with 13%, Mitt Romney with 12%, Huckabee with 10%, Ron Paul with 5%, Tom Tancredo with 2% and Duncan Hunter with 1%.

Giuliani's number is a full eight points below a Gallup poll of Nov. 2-4 and is his lowest number in the poll since last December. Thompson picked up 2 points, McCain lost 5, Romney lost 2 points, and Huckabee and Paul both picked up 4 points in the new survey.

Posted at RasmussenReports.com;

Mitt Romney has extended his lead in the Iowa Republican Presidential Caucus for 2008 and three candidates are virtually tied for second place.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of the race shows Romney with support from 29% of Likely Caucus Participants. Trailing the frontrunner by thirteen percentage points is Mike Huckabee who enjoys support from 16%. In a virtual tie for second with Huckabee are Rudy Giuliani at 15% and Fred Thompson at 14%.

by Fred Thompson in the Fred File
If you listen to folks who oppose immigration and border enforcement, you get the feeling they think we put locks on our doors to keep everybody out. The truth is we have locks so we can choose who comes in.

An example of what happens when we don%u2019t make the choice took place August 4th when three Newark, New Jersey, college students with great promise were executed, gangland style. The killers%u2019 ringleader was apparently an illegal alien indicted twice in 2007 for felonies, including the rape of a kindergarten-aged girl.

Why would such a person be set free instead of being handed over to authorities for deportation? The answer is that Newark is a %u201Csanctuary city%u201D which bans cooperation between local officials and federal immigration officials. More than 60 sanctuary zones, including 30 of America%u2019s largest cities, provide a national networked haven for foreign and organized criminals who recruit and operate outside those areas as well. These sanctuaries include Cambridge, Massachusetts; Los Angeles, California; Detroit, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois; Austin and Houston, Texas; Denver, Colorado; and New York City.

The consequences of %u201Csanctuary cities%u201D may be most obvious in the city that became the first in 1979 %u2014 Los Angeles. According to the Center for Immigration Studies, a confidential California Department of Justice study from the mid-1990%u2019s showed then that at least 60 percent of the members of L.A.%u2019s most violent gangs, with membership in the tens of thousands, were illegal aliens. Of all outstanding murder warrants in Los Angeles, 95 percent are for illegal aliens. Frustrated police say they are powerless to pick up even well-known, previously deported felons.

The costs of policies that offer shelter to criminals are borne not just by the citizens of Newark, Cambridge, and other sanctuaries though. According to the investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, illegal aliens made up 27 percent of the federal prison population in 2005, totaling 49,000 and costing federal taxpayers $1.2 billion. There were also more than 220,000 illegals in state and local prisons and jails. Now, I am not suggesting that all illegal aliens are violent criminals. They are not. Most are peaceful folks just trying to get by like the rest of us. But we would be far better off if we checked on people as they come into the country rather than find out who the bad ones are after they victimize people here.

We have the right to keep criminal predators out of our home. Those who want to immigrate into America need to knock, identify themselves, and ask permission first. They will not do so though if we can%u2019t even ask who they are, which is prevented in sanctuary cities. Now I am a strong federalist, but immigration is a responsibility of the federal government, and the failures of local officials to enforce our national laws have a direct impact on communities around the country. So federal law must be enforced, or our neighborhoods will continue to be the scene of chilling and lurid crimes committed by those who broke the law in the first place to come to America.

Poll: Women Prefer Hillary, Men Thompson
by The Associated Press
Posted: August 7, 2007 - 1:00 pm ET
(Washington) Women are flocking to Hillary Rodham Clinton's Democratic presidential candidacy and men are doing the same for Republican Fred Thompson.

Yet for all that support, both candidates are showing early vulnerabilities wooing voters of the opposite sex.

Thompson, the former Tennessee senator and tough-guy actor on television's "Law and Order," gets 68 percent of his support from males as he edges toward a run for the GOP presidential nomination, far more than other hopefuls, according to recent Associated Press-Ipsos polling. While he and front-runner Rudy Giuliani each draw nearly a quarter of the Republican male vote, he significantly trails his chief rivals among women.

"He seems to be closer to the conservative that I am," said Richard Bussa, 60, a Thompson supporter and retired newspaper writer from Minford, Ohio. "Playing on the police shows he's on, he does present a hard-nosed, law-and-order-type guy."

On the Democratic side, Clinton is showing a mirror-image weakness, though one less stark than Thompson's.

The New York senator and former first lady gets 63 percent of her support from women and has more than twice the female backing of her nearest rival, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in AP-Ipsos surveys. She has only a slender lead among men, who are splitting their allegiances about evenly among her, Obama and former Vice President Al Gore, who has not said he will run.

"She's competent, she's tough," said Diana Roberts, 54, a teacher from Edison, N.J. "And I think it's time" for a woman to be president.

These patterns make Clinton and Thompson formidable forces within their parties. A slight majority of GOP voters are men, who tend to be more conservative than women, while just over half of Democratic voters are female, according to figures from recent national elections.

Analysts caution that women tend to choose their candidates later than men, and that many people aren't closely following the campaigns yet. Even so, Thompson and Clinton would each want to attract more voters of the opposite sex should they lead their parties in the 2008 general elections.

"She can certainly win the nomination based on her support with women," said Democratic pollster Geoff Garin, who is not affiliated with any presidential candidate. "But at the end of the day for the general election, she needs to make sure she can get her fair share of votes among swing men as well."

Combining data from AP-Ipsos polls from June and July, Clinton - who leads nationally overall - had the support of 41 percent of women. That compared to 19 percent for Obama, 14 percent for Gore and 10 percent for John Edwards. Clinton is strong with women of all ages, married and single.

At the same time, Clinton had the backing of 26 percent of men - slightly more than Obama's 23 percent and Gore's 22 percent, while Edwards had 13 percent. Clinton did worst with men who are younger or political independents - the same groups where Obama did best.

Ann Lewis, senior adviser to Clinton, said Clinton's leadership ability and the family issues like health care she emphasizes would eventually win over more males."I think we have room to grow among men," said Lewis.

Thompson's support from 24 percent of men was virtually tied with Giuliani's 22 percent, and better than the 18 percent who favor Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. Thompson draws most of his strength from men over age 45 and married men - who tend to be more conservative than their younger and single counterparts.

Giuliani, the former New York mayor, leads easily among GOP women, winning 26 percent compared to 16 percent for McCain and 12 percent for both Thompson and Mitt Romney. Giuliani, more moderate than Thompson on abortion and other social issues, gets 54 percent of his support from women.

"To say he has a problem with women misses the point," John McLaughlin, Thompson's pollster, said of the candidate. "Thompson has surged and he's in first place among men now and he's not even in the race. The women voters, they'll be there."

Typifying Thompson's situation is Carolyn Baughn, 70, a retired legal secretary from Jackson, Miss., who says she has seen his television show. "I haven't seen him make any real political statements, or have to make any decisions that would pertain to the people of the United States, and I think that means a lot," said Baughn, a Giuliani supporter.

Also supporting Giuliani is Cheryl Simonich, 50, a training coordinator in West Jordan, Utah, who liked his calm during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. She expressed surprise he was doing well among women. "He's no George Clooney, you know," she said, referring to the handsome actor.

The AP-Ipsos poll taken July 9 to 11 involved telephone interviews with 1,004 adults and had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

For the combined June and July polls, the margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for Republicans and plus or minus 3 percentage points for Democrats.

(Sorry - cannot find the original link - only find full story)

CQPolitics.com With a re-vamped Web site, a new %u201CWeekly Update%u201D e-mail to supporters, and the announcement of top campaign hires, the still-unofficial presidential campaign of actor and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson edges ever closer to officialdom this week.

As part of the flurry of activity, Thompson informed supporters he was taking the month of August to travel around the country and speak with voters. %u201CIt%u2019s not quite two-a-days, but I think we%u2019re building some real momentum. To keep that momentum, we%u2019re shifting into higher gear,%u201D Thompson wrote in his inaugural e-mail update, released Tuesday,

On Wednesday, the campaign announced that Bill Lacy, a former Reagan White House political aide, had joined as chairman of %u201CFriends of Fred Thompson.%u201D Lacey worked on the presidential campaigns of Reagan, President George H.W. Bush and former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, and also worked on Thompson%u2019s 2004 Senate run.

%u201CAs I move toward a decision on whether to run for president, I am confident he will take our operations to the next level,%u201D Thompson said in a statement.

by Fred Thompson
Economist Larry Kudlow calls today%u2019s American economy, %u201Cthe greatest story never told.%u201D If you%u2019re generally predisposed to not support tax cuts and economic growth, you%u2019re probably satisfied that the U.S. economy isn%u2019t bragged on more. But you%u2019d also be out of step with Americans traditional optimism, and out of step with reality, too.

The economic reality I%u2019m talking about, and about which I%u2019ve written on numerous occasions, is how well our country is doing economically thanks to the hard work of the American people, the innovation and competition our free market encourages, as well as the Bush tax cuts that helped spur 5� years of economic growth.