Craig Crawford's Trail Mix

TAMPA — Fred Thompson is traveling across Florida this week hoping for a do-over on two issues that he flubbed last month on his first campaign trip as a Republican presidential candidate. On protecting the Everglades and on the headline-making 2005 life-or-death case of a gravely brain-damaged Florida woman, the actor and former Tennessee senator seemed to know little and care less during his first swing.

But yesterday, Thompson offered an emotional explanation for his earlier mishandling of questions about Terri Schiavo, whose husband had to overcome opposition from President Bush and a Republican-controlled Congress to win his court battle to remove her feeding tube.

"I had to make those decisions with the rest of my family," Thompson told reporters in a reference to his daughter Betsy, who died in 2002 at age 38 of what was ruled an accidental overdose of a prescription drug. "I am a little bit uncomfortable about that, because it’s an intensely personal thing."

Today, Thompson goes to South Florida where he is expected to revise his earlier remarks leaving the door open to drilling for oil in the Everglades. He now firmly opposes it.

Getting back on track in Florida is worth the effort for Thompson. Polls show him within striking distance of ex-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the current front-runner in polls on the Jan. 29 Florida primary.

The GOP field is fiercely competing for the Sunshine State even though a panel of the Republican National Committee on Monday recommended stripping the state of half of its 114 delegates to next summer’s presidential nominating convention as punishment for holding its primary election a week earlier than allowed by party rules.