The founder of Colorado-based Focus on the Family, James Dobson, has voiced his opposition to Fred Thompson as a candidate. But one evangelical leader says the former Tennessee Senator should be conservative coalition’s pick.

Richard Land, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, says once evangelical voters get to know Thompson, they’ll support his values.

“Senator Thompson is clearly, strongly pro-life. Senator Thompson is clearly, strongly pro-traditional marriage, and is a man who comes across as a person who is a person of basic character.”

A new Associated Press-Ipsos poll gives Rudy Giuliani the national lead in the Republican race, but the polls also suggest it’s too early and too close a race to concede anything.

Of the Republicans surveyed, roughly 18 percent remain undecided. Giuliani was the favorite of 27 percent of those surveyed, just ahead of Fred Thompson’s 23 percent.

Land predicts evangelical voters will have a problem with Giuliani’s being married three times.