Thompson Liftoff

From the Corner on National Review,

All eyes are naturally enough on the Michigan primary tomorrow—all eyes,

that is, except mine, Jonathan Adler's, and those belonging to readers of this

happy Corner who have been wondering, along with Jonathan and me, when the polls

down in South Carolina would finally begin to move in Fred Thompson's direction.

Now, Rasmussen reports, they

have. Fred ain't dead. Lately, as the South Carolina debate demonstrated to

all the world, he ain't even drowsy.

Which brings me to a question. Earlier

today I talked with an old friend who's close to the Thompson campaign. At every

Thompson campaign stop in South Carolina, he told me, there is something new:

real excitement. The crowds are big and growing by the day—for the first time,

people are being turned away from Thompson events because they're already full.

The state troopers are showing that special deference and respect they reserve

for candidates whom they actually suspect will soon become the commander in

chief. And Thompson himself is pointed, energetic, combative. In other words,

the campaign feels as though its achieving liftoff.