Here’s an amazing blather-filled apology from Chris Matthews.

More on Fred T., this from the poo-bah of mainstream newspaper journalism:

Fred D. Thompson, 65, is plying the comeback trail in South Carolina, his poll numbers showing a tease of life — he is, statistically speaking, tied for third in recent polls — and his country wit growing more serrated.

It’s nicely done, by one Michael Powell. 

Meanwhile, back at the Chicago Tribune ranch, Fred finally gets a story, by Lisa Anderson:

With his young wife, Jeri, and two small children in tow, the veteran actor, lawyer and former U.S. senator from Tennessee — the candidate billed as the second coming of Ronald Reagan when he entered the race — vehemently emphasized his vision, consistency and clear conservative values to supporters at The Beacon restaurant in Spartanburg on Friday, telling them “That’s why we will win.”

Now really.  “Vehemently”?  He gets vehement?  How about “vigorously”?  Or even “forthrightly.” 

Point is, Chi Trib will be the last to know if Fred has winning touch:

Fred Thompson, the actor and ex-U.S. senator from Tennessee, has yet to justify the advance billing that suggested he is the second coming of Reagan.

is how its Tim Jones said it yesterday.

A more sympathetic observer has him shining “at the last minute,” however.

in the final appearance of Thompson’s South Carolina primary campaign, in a packed room at Greenville’s Embassy Suites hotel. At that appearance, Thompson was so good, so energized, so non-laid-back-Fred, that many of his supporters wondered where the man had been during the campaign.

That’s Byron York of National Review Online.  Hey.  Pay your money and take your choice.

Obama’s minister has a way with words.  Listing O. as a black savior along with slave-rebellion leader Nat Turner and Martin Luther King, he said there have always been reasons not to follow them.

Some argue that blacks should vote for Clinton “because her husband was good to us,” he continued.

“That’s not true,” he thundered. “He did the same thing to us that he did to Monica Lewinsky.”

Zowie.

Who said this?

One clue that Romney is our strongest candidate is the fact that Democrats keep viciously attacking him while expressing their deep respect for Mike Huckabee and John McCain.

It’s someone with a keen eye for liberal obfuscation and sharp wit for nailing it.  Here’s your killer tip, next ‘graph:

This point was already extensively covered in Chapter 1 of “How To Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)”: Never take advice from your political enemies.

OK.  It’s the author of that collection of keen, sharp columnary broadsides, Miss Ann Coulter.

Criticism of Fred T. as lacking fire in belly, etc.

is put forth by the court jesters who know their brand of foolishness could not get an audience in a Thompson presidency.

says private-citizen letter-writer in Tennessean.

Yes.  He could revolutionize media coverage.  Imagine a president willing to say that’s a dumb question.  It’s not easy.

Fred’s #2 in S. Carolina, says Rasmussen:

Fred Thompson’s lagging campaign finds solace in the latest Rasmussen poll in South Carolina which shows he is TIED with Huckabee and Romney for SECOND.

His campaign launched a new ad in South Carolina on the heels of the good news.

Like Avis a long time ago, he’s trying harder?  This site has his new ad, in which he says things (briefly) that in our hearts we know are right — and that we know no Dem would be caught dead saying.  In him we have a choice not an echo?

Fred Thompson is gaining in S. Carolina, Huckabee is losing, says Rasmussen:

Over the past several days, the only real movement in South Carolina’s Republican Presidential Primary has been a four-point gain for Fred Thompson and a five-point decline for Mike Huckabee.

It’s

McCain at 28%, Huckabee at 19%, Mitt Romney at 17%, and Fred Thompson at 16%. Rudy Giuliani and Ron Paul are tied with 5% support.

This guy picks Fred Thompson for November, emphasizing (guess what?) defense, the ever-present Dem weak point:

Why will he win? Because there are only three candidates who are strong on defense yet do not offend many Republicans: Giuliani, Romney, and Thompson. Of these three, Giuliani seems to be stumbling badly and Romney is stumbling badly enough to give an opening to Thompson.

Robert Frost said it ironically, but fences are important.

Barack Obama’s church:

A leading Democratic candidate for president attends an “Afrocentric” church that bestows awards on Louis Farrakhan and practically defines itself through race-baiting. Burt Prelutsky asks, why isn’t Barack Obama’s faith-based problem making national headlines and the nightly news?

He’s a uniter?

Update from Instapundit:

MICKEY KAUS: “It’s hard to believe that Obama’s Afrocentric church–with its troubling attack on ‘the pursuit of middeclassness’–isn’t going to be an issue in the campaign, soon.”

Meanwhile, Reader Bob urges me to attend this church some time, “sit through a service, introduce [my]self and . . . stay for the discussions after or join in some of their social service activities which truly benefit their community and backstop other communities’ churches without the resources that [this church] Trinity UCC has. Seriously, it is an incredible house of worship with good Christians.”

Maybe I will (but first get these leg-long casts off: they prohibit my kneeling, for worship or anything else).  I did that at St. Sabina once, listening to Al Sharpton give a political speech disguised as a a sermon.  Trouble is, would I hear the Gospel of Afrocentrism?

Instapundit hears this:

THE NEW YORK TIMES reports [cited below] that Fred Thompson is surging in South Carolina. And I just got an email from a journalist who says that crowds at Thompson events are suddenly over-capacity. Is it a tipping point for Thompson, or just a blip? Stay tuned.

I intend to.