As We Approach Fred Thompson's Second Debate, CBS News Poll Shows Conservatives Favor Thompson over Rest of GOP Field

Poll finds Thompson appeals to churchgoers
Thompson has been working to portray himself as a "consistent conservative"
Politico.com
By: David Paul Kuhn
Oct 20, 2007

Fred Thompson may have failed to impress Beltway insiders when he finally launched his run for the White House last month, but he is winning over a critical segment of the Republican coalition, new polling suggests.

Conservative Christians favor Thompson by a 10-point margin over his closest rival, Rudy Giuliani. It’s a sharp reversal for Giuliani. The putative GOP front-runner had been winning social conservative backing despite his history of support for abortion rights and gay rights.

Thompson has changed that. Giuliani leads Thompson 29 percent to 21 percent among Republicans generally, the new national CBS News poll suggests. But weekly Republican churchgoers back Thompson by a margin of 29 percent to 19 percent for Giuliani — roughly tying John McCain.
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Thompson’s strategy seems to be working.
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Shortly after Thompson spoke Friday, the influential conservative evangelical Richard Land — an early proponent of Thompson’s joining the race — gave a blunt warning to the Republican Party: If the GOP nominates an abortion rights supporter and has the issue “effectively taken off the table,” many religious Christian voters may not vote Republican in 2008.

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As a follow-up note, it looks like yet another GOP straw poll has been $bought$ by a certain candidate, but then again, I don't think the Republican party nomination is for sale, at least let's hope I am right. Good luck tonight FDT!