But Thompson actually came in second to the 21.3 percent of the 7,081 U.S. residents who, when asked which 2008 candidate for U.S. president "is most capable of bringing stability to Iraq," said "not sure."

Still, that Thompson, R-Tenn., at 14.7 percent, was first among the candidates says something about such a young campaign. He only recently formally joined the race.

Second among the candidates was Democratic Party front-runner Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., at 11.2 percent with Rudy Giuliani, a Republican who was mayor of New York, next at 9.9 percent.

Two Democrats followed with Sen. Barak Obama, D-Ill., pulling 8.4 percent and former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., getting mentioned by 5.7 percent of respondents. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., came in at 5.3 percent and Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., was named by 5 percent. No other candidate was picked by more than 3.3 percent of the pool.

Thompson -- at 14 percent -- led among independents with Giuliani (10.5 percent) and Obama (8.1 percent) the only other candidates to get more than 6.3 percent support from that poll subset. Still, among independents, "not sure" came out on top at 24.8 percent.

There is a 1.2 percentage-point margin of error in the poll, which was conducted Sept. 7-10.