Fred Thompson leads in a new South Carolina straw poll, and Allah has game on why it's not just a Southern thing. You can also work it from the other direction, and gauge Fred's potential run by looking at what his opponents are doing. According to Melanie Morgan, they're taking him quite seriously:

Just to give you a very crude measure of potential interest, we're getting insane hits from people Googling Jeri Thompson nee Kehn. You'll remember her from when we predicted she'd become a target of sexism from ostensible anti-sexists. Then when she did become a target of sexism from ostensible anti-sexists, NPR went into rock-back-and-forth-in-the-corner denial.

There are a lot of people searching for information about Mrs. Thompson, and some of them are searching pretty deep. There arehundreds of hits for "kehn", which if you're using Google doesn't appear anywhere near the first three pages as a MR post.

You imagine some of that is just plain old curiosity. Some more is coming from conservatives looking for whatever they can find about a Republican candidate that they can get excited about. But not a little is oppo research - from other GOP people, from a very few Dem campaigns, and from whatever passes as "flexing their muscles" for the netroots. Really - this is how they talk.

References:
* SC poll has Obama, Thompson as frontrunners [Real Cities]
* South Carolina poll: Fred! 25, Rudy 21, Mitt 11; Update McCain’s, Kyl’s favorable ratings down [Hot Air]
* Meet Jeri Thompson, the Powerful Republican Consultant That Grassroots Liberals Will Be Attacking As A Bimbo [MR]
* NPR In Denial About Sexism On the Left, Gets MR Exactly Wrong On Jeri Thompson [MR]

Previously:
* Fred Thompson For President... Now
* Fred Thompson On How To Be A Careful Conservative
* Friday Thompson Fix, LA Times Buzz Edition

Cross-posted to:
* The Astute Bloggers