"The Big Story From South Carolina Will Be Fred Thompson"

So say the latest tracking polls from a very smart SC consultant this morning. McCain will still win, but Thompson is surging past the rest of the field. He also says that Thompson's voters in his surveys are the most committed.

And no, he's not part of the Thompson campaign.

But my reaction was "So what?" "Second place" still means "First loser." Does a silver medal in South Carolina give Thompson a serious shot at winning Florida--particularly with Romney competing seriously there and pulling anti-McCain votes of his own?

It's possible that Fred Thompson now has the fire in his belly, but he doesn't have the money in the bank account. He might help take out Huckabee (which would be a tremendous gift to the GOP, by the way), but win? Where?

And if he doesn't win in Florida, where does he get the money to compete on Super Tuesday?

However, if my source is right and Thompson takes second, it's likely that Romney will come in 4th--which makes his decision to focus on Nevada even smarter.

"Three golds and three silvers, baby!"