On Thompson, Romney, and the world

The big question in the GOP primary race now is how Fred Thompson's candidacy will shake things up. Different observers have different takes on who Thompson hurts the most, but David Yepsen, the columinst-sage for the Des Moines Register, wonders if it's Mitt Romney. Yepsen compares two recent polls of Iowa Republicans.

"When you compare the findings of the two polls, Rudy Giuliani and John McCain actually increase their support if Thompson is in the race. Romney drops," Yepsen writes.

Meanwhile, Romney has a piece in the summer issue of Foreign Affairs laying out his foreign policy prescriptions. The weighty article pulls together some of the proposals Romney has been pushing on the campaign trail.

"We need new thinking on foreign policy and an overarching strategy that can unite the United States and its allies -- not around a particular political camp or foreign policy school but around a shared understanding of how to meet a new generation of challenges," Romney writes.

And Joe Klein of Time magazine, who was trailing Romney in New Hampshire earlier this week, pens a tough piece on the former Massachusetts governor, in which he charges that Romney "takes postures, not positions."

"There isn't the slightest hint of courage or conviction in his stump act," Klein writes.