Another Entry, but Still a Jumbled GOP Race

The Top Contenders, All Seen as Flawed, Struggle for a Message

The contest for the Republican presidential nomination remains without a clear front-runner in a field of candidates still scrambling to find a message.

The entry of former senator Fred D. Thompson (Tenn.) has done little to clarify the race, according to strategists inside and outside the campaigns. His mediocre reviews have added to the perception that all of the leading candidates must overcome evident flaws to win the nomination.

If anything, the race is more competitive than it was in midsummer, when Thompson's entry was eagerly anticipated, as the two nominal front-runners have failed to break away from the pack.

Former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has seen his significant lead in national polls shrink dramatically, and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has yet to translate support in Iowa and New Hampshire into broader backing across the country.

Thompson has jumped to second in national polls but still faces the challenge of living up to advance billing as the candidate who could excite a lethargic and demoralized Republican base. Meanwhile, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) is trying to revive his campaign with undaunted support for President Bush's war policy.

The convoluted contest has left many Republican strategists concerned and questioning whether any candidate has found a voice and vision that can carry him to the White House.

"I don't think that any of them have really put forward a vision for how they would lead our country to Republican voters," said Terry Nelson, a veteran of Bush's 2004 campaign and the McCain campaign's former manager. "I believe that successful campaigns for president have a positive vision for where they want to lead."

The leading candidates have begun to carve out distinctive niches. Giuliani has seized on the fight against terrorism and on his performance in New York after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. McCain has made Iraq his defining issue. Romney has sought to project himself as the candidate of competence. Thompson poses the question, Why can't things be better?

But none, said former House speaker Newt Gingrich, has defined his candidacy in a way that represents a genuine break with the Bush presidency or the status quo, a requirement he called crucial to the GOP's hopes of holding the White House.

Instead, said other Republicans, the candidates are running traditional campaigns on traditional Republican issues -- a play-it-safe strategy designed to get them through the primaries but not necessarily to the White House.

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee has been trying to steer a path in that direction, casting himself in debates as a conservative with a fresh vision. But his under-funded campaign must overcome four candidates who are far better known.

"The race for the nomination is very much up for grabs," said Scott Reed, who ran Robert J. Dole's 1996 presidential campaign. "Each of the major four candidates have some flaws, and while the campaigns have had some good moments over the summer, they're all starting about in the same place."