Des Moines Register political columnist David Yepsen writes that folks shouldn't rule out late surges by Fred Thompson and John Edwards. Here's Yepsen on Thompson:
[A]fter a sluggish start, Thompson has sensed an opening in Iowa, and he's moving decisively to exploit it. The opening arises from a combination of Romney's changes of position on social issues and Huckabee's stumbles on foreign-policy questions and immigration. After his winning performance in the Des Moines Register's debate, Thompson has embarked on a lengthy bus tour of the state. During these final days, his campaign says he'll hold events in 50 communities and will visit 54 of the 99 counties. On Monday, he picked up the surprise endorsement of Congressman Steve King. Of all the endorsements flying around these days, that one could move the most numbers. It sends a powerful signal from one of Iowa's most conservative leaders to others on the right around the state: We've now got a horse we can ride.
Yepsen, who seems to have picked up Thompson's habit of ending sentences with folksy metaphors, may or may not be right to sense budding momentum behind Thompson in Iowa. (According to this chart, Thompson is flat-lining, for the moment, in third place.) There's sure to be late-breaking movement in Iowa polling that will show up in the days after Christmas; there also ought to be at least one more horserace cycle before January 3. The race is up in the air, as you may have heard. Still, it would be slightly re-assuring news if the GOP candidate who was most dismissive of the media-circus by which we now choose presidential candidates ended up the surprise hit of the Iowa caucuses, wouldn't it?