It just could happen:

“But after 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.”

And that feeling is growing. Here in Florida there is a renewed sense of excitement surrounding Thompson as a true conservative candidate and not one who “made himself” one just to run for President.

While it’s the consensus, I don’t think at all that Fred’s start was all that sluggish and in fact it seems far more calculated than anything else. The Iowa debate showed that.

Let me put it this way. Bank tellers will tell you that when they spot counterfeit money it’s not from studying the fake, but when they have become so used to viewing the real thing that when they see instantly spot it.

That may yet happen with the conservative base and Fred.