Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:<\/p>\n
* Contributing to the growing buzz that senator-turned-actor Fred Thompson (R) is going to run for president, The Politico’s Mike Allen reported<\/a> that the “Law & Order” star has “moved beyond pondering a bid for the White House and begun assembling the nucleus of a campaign should he decide to run.” Thompson will appear at the annual Lincoln Club of Orange County dinner in Southern California in May, which is considered an important stop for aspiring Republicans.<\/p>\n * Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) continues to drop strong hints<\/a> that he’s going to go after his GOP presidential rivals’ personal lives. Huckabee told the AP that Republicans not paying attention to the personal lives of their own candidates “would be troubling because that inconsistency would show it really wasn’t about principles. It was about personality, character assassination and politics.”<\/p>\n * Even before his talked about supporting public funding of abortions, Rudy Giuliani’s swing through Iowa this week didn’t generate the excitement<\/a> his campaign had hoped for. Before a speech at a high school gymnasium, Giuliani aides partitioned the gym, which they’d hoped to fill, in order to make the crowd look bigger. The AP added, “Just before the candidate took the stage, a few in the audience tried to start a ‘Rudy, Rudy, Rudy’ chant. It was a halfhearted effort that died quickly.”<\/p>\n * I’ve been trying very hard to ignore early polling data for the presidential race — it’s just not reliable yet — but a new Hotline\/Diageo poll<\/a> (.pdf) included an interesting result: nationwide, a generic Democratic candidate leads a generic Republican by almost 20 points, 47% to 29%. Obviously, once real names are added, the results change, but it certainly sounds as if Americans are ready for a Democratic president.<\/p>\n