Some Republicans are wondering if Thompson means to boost support to McCain by raising his own stature. If this is what Fred Thompson is doing, it won't work. The base is not in a particularly corroborative mood. November proved that the base was tired of the Republican power games:
Yeah, right. That will happen. This is not a good year to try something like that. The base is angry and they are angry at Republicans like McCain who don't know how to lead and our more concerned with what the media thinks of him than what the base thinks of him. He's more concerned with working with the Democrats than fighting them."Until the middle of last month, however, [Fred Thompson] was a very informal adviser to close friend John McCain, and he would occasionally telephone donors and potential supporters on the senator's behalf."
"Some Republicans suspect that Thompson is an angler -- that his presidential flirtations will help him serve as a fishnet to scoop up conservatives and then dump them into McCain's basket. They think he'll raise his stature, muse publicly about the presidential race, build up anticipation, and then, presto change-o, announce that he thinks McCain would make the best president. A good many solid conservatives -- House members, donors, activists, and state party elites -- in the Thompson net would follow him to McCain. Or so the thinking goes."
Here's another online poll. I hope that Thompson is noticing these online polls, he's crushing the competition. And McCain? Out of 4608 votes, he has 18. We don't want him, he's not the inevitable candidate, not even close. So, if Thompson wants to play king maker, he better find another candidate.
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