Republican Fred Thompson tried to rev up support for his presidential campaign Tuesday by comparing his Democratic rivals to race car drivers who only know how to turn left. "It's like they're all in training for the NASCAR, you know, nothing but a left turn, just steady as she goes, all the way around," he said at a coffee house in northeastern Iowa. "And they're going to wind up kinda where they started from, too, like the George McGovern days, some of them driving a little faster than the others, but they're all going in the same direction." Thompson continued the analogy, saying, "I don't think the United States of America is prepared to turn the keys over to the most left-wing part of the left-wing party."

Not that Thompson, the former Tennessee senator, or other Republican candidates have anything against stock car racing or the NASCAR circuit.

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, for example, campaigned at last Sunday's race in Florida, his third event of the year.

Earlier this month, Thompson visited a NASCAR-themed restaurant in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and joked about his rivals Giuliani and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

"Now, when Rudy and Mitt come down here from New York and Massachusetts, I want you to be nice to them. And the first thing I want you to do is explain to them what NASCAR is," Thompson said. "It's not a hybrid automobile."

On Tuesday, Thompson said the Democratic Party's candidates "are being driven off ... a left wing cliff just as fast as they can."

"I think no matter who their nominee is, if they are elected president of the United States, we're going to move more and more toward weakness in terms of national security, and more and more toward a welfare state in terms of economic policy," he said.

On other subjects:

- Asked about global warming, he said all nations must help out. "We could do lots of things here in this country, by ourselves, that would have significant negative impacts on our economy," Thompson said, but the good effects would be wiped out if other nations didn't chip in, too.

- Asked about Israel and Middle East, he said: "We need to be realistic and understand that we can't impose peace on any other sets of nations or would-be nations in that part of the world, especially with regard to something that's been going on so long, with such deep divisions." Still, he said, "we have to be resolute in doing what we feel is necessary to protect our friends in a very dangerous place."

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On the Net:

Fred Thompson: http://www.fred08.com/index.aspx

Written By AMY LORENTZEN