Rasmussen has released its latest primary polling today. The results:

Fred Thompson - 25%

Rudy Giuliani - 24%

Mitt Romney - 12%

John McCain - 12%

Mike Huckabee - 2%

Sam Brownback - 2%

Everyone else - 3% total

Fred Thompson continues to show his strength amongst Republican primary voters, even without formally announcing. His campaign has surely taken note of this, as there are now reports that he’ll delay an announcement until August or even September. If he can garner such support and provoke such press (both good press and hit jobs by the NY and LA Times) without even formally entering the race, why not delay a bit longer and let the other candidates spend their money?

Rasmussen made some good points about Gov. Romney’s failure to make a substantial gain in the polls despite his money machine and organizational skills:

For Romney, the question about his viability is the same, but it is asked from a different perspective. Many insiders have long viewed him as the natural conservative challenger to Giuliani. He’s good looking, rich, and has built a serious campaign organization. But, for Romney, the polling numbers have been less than exhilarating. In national polling, the man from Massachusetts has struggled in the 10% to 12% range for months and can’t seem to gain any traction.

Romney does lead in New Hampshire, but those numbers also suggest an underlying weakness. Romney is from neighboring Massachusetts and well known to New Hampshire voters. On top of that, he is the only candidate to be advertising on television in the state. He should be way ahead rather than nursing a nine-point lead. Will his advantage hold when other candidates begin to get their message out on the airwaves? If he ekes out a narrow victory on his home turf, will that help or hurt?

I think despite Romney’s best efforts to grease the skids of his frequent lane-changes over his political career, Republican primary voters aren’t buying what he’s selling. He may be a great businessman, a masterful politician, and Presidential-looking, but without a consistent conservative philosophy he’s not going to gain any traction. If he were to change on one or two issues it wouldn’t be of great concern, but he has completely revamped his entire political philosophy and made such contradicting statements that he can’t save himself.

Rasmussen also notes this about Fred:

Many Washington insiders tend to dismiss Thompson for a variety of reasons, but it is not clear how well these insiders understand GOP primary voters. After all, they misjudged reaction to both Giuliani and McCain (to say nothing of a total misreading of the public during the immigration debate). Some things viewed as negatives by insiders—such as walking away from a career in the Senate—may be viewed differently by voters. Still, it is fair to expect that perceptions of Thompson will change once he enters the rough and tumble of the campaign. The next three months will probably give us a very clear indication of whether Thompson will sink or swim.

This hits the nail on the head - the aspects of Thompson’s candidacy that don’t excite Washington insiders are exactly what excites primary voters. We don’t want a career politician with Potomac Fever like Sen. McCain, an opportunistic flip-flopper like Gov. Romney, or a “Big Government Republican” like Mayor Giuliani - we learned that lesson with Bush II. An experienced lawyer who has 8 years of experience in the Senate, and did not crave power and chose to leave Washington, and who has been a consistent conservative and Federalist, is exactly what draws voters to support Fred Thompson.

On a different note, I’ve noticed lately that Sen. Thompson is the only Republican candidate to be referred to by his first name - much like Hillary on the Democratic side. We may have a race not between “Senator Thompson and Senator Clinton,” but between Fred! and Hillary!.